Raising the Stakes
by meekobuggy
Summary: Bella learns to find her place among the team as she continues to learn their ways. Being forced to maintain her routines as her friends help her search for her missing friend, her past soon catches up with her. The threat against everyone is much more than they ever anticipated, making some consider options that might never have been taken before. Sequel to Gambling Hearts.
1. Life Goes On

**AUTHORS MESSAGE: And you thought that you all would have to wait a long time before getting the sequel! Nope! We actually couldn't wait to get it out to you! Well, mainly because we have it tied in with the Christmas holiday and we want _that_ chapter out around the 25th, so... pressing times. Updates may be weekly or more _until_ Christmas. After Christmas, we will likely be taking a short break to recuperate from word explosion overload between _Gambling Hearts_ and now _Raising the Stakes_ going back to back, not to mention our own individual projects. Love to Carb0408 for her beta work on this story for us. And...We hope you enjoy the next adventure... Much love, Meeko & Buggy.**

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><p><strong>~o.O.o~<strong>

**PREVIOUSLY IN **_**GAMBLING HEARTS**_

**~o.O.o~**

When we left in _Gambling Hearts_, Bella had begun her formal training with the team and officially joined them in her first mission. While it begun smoothly for Oliver, Roy, and Bella; taking down yet another arms dealer - that pop up like the Whac-a-Mole game - it quickly turned sour when it was discovered that a member of the most recent gang included her ex-boyfriend's brother that she hadn't seen in over ten years.

Bella faltered on the mission but recovered quickly and they completed the job, but she grew concerned about what had led the quiet boy she'd known into that kind of life. In leaving the scene, she had received a text message on her phone from her friend Rosalie. In it, they received information that caused great concern for all. _Bella, Esmé told me they were going to move to Starling City 'to help the poor'. Stay safe, please! Rose. _At least one of the Cullens was planning on moving to Starling City.

**~o.O.o~**

**FOUR MONTHS LATER**

**~o.O.o~**

Bella sat at the empty bar at Verdant as she worked on the employees' payroll. It was the regular Wednesday distraction since her first mission with the team. It had taken some time for the staff to get used to her presence and style of management as it was much more driven than Oliver and Roy's.

Granted it was still predominantly Oliver's club, but he had allowed her the control she needed as it helped keep her from breaking down over her concern for her friend. When she had realized that the text message was not truly from Rosalie, Bella had Felicity run every trace she could possibly perform on her phone and her friend's number. Every background check and missing person's report for her friend had come back with nothing of note, except some information that the girl was home with her family in Seattle.

Between the text message that stated Esmé Cullen's intent to move to Starling City for some charitable work and Rosalie's disappearance, Oliver had grown increasingly concerned for Bella's mental state. Time had continued to pass and the woman still hadn't been seen around the city, and he was relieved thus far, but small blessings could only last for so long. He needed to get some eyes on the Cullens soon to find out what was going on there, but he didn't want to leave Bella either as her nightmares, in spite of beautiful fall weather and no weather controlling meta-humans in the vicinity that they were aware of, were terrible enough that they woke him often from a sound sleep.

It was hard on her to learn how far Jasper Cullen had fallen since she'd last seen him. She had admitted she wasn't close with him, but that he also hadn't treated her bad either. They simply had a cordial passing relationship that she respected from her distance, which was what made her hesitate that night on the rooftop when Oliver questioned her on what she wanted him to do.

After making sure that Roy and Bella had been safe in the van that night, he returned to try to question the man about his brother and father's intentions with the girl but Jasper seemed to genuinely not know what the Arrow was talking about. Every method short of severe pain infliction that he knew of, never caused him to deflect on his answers, forcing him to leave him for Captain Lance with the feeling of extreme dissatisfaction from the encounter. Oliver was no closer to getting to Carlisle Cullen than before and it was one more day that Bella would live in her nightmare.

~o.O.o~

Oliver was forced to find a healthy balance between spending his time at Queen Consolidated and his duty as The Arrow by spending mornings at the office and in the afternoons training in the basement at Verdant, either with Bella, Diggle or Roy or on his own. The only full day he spent at QC was on Wednesdays, as this was a requirement the team convinced him to do in order to reduce suspicions from anyone at the office.

He couldn't be happier with that team. They had shown to be trustworthy, hard workers and true to their word. QC was out of the red and was finally making money again and that had been one of his biggest fears; that he couldn't get his father's company out of the shit that Oliver himself had been responsible for.

Oliver liked how easy it was. How easy _this_ was, him and Bella. Despite both of them being slightly awkward when it came to romance (honestly, if Felicity hadn't helped him out during their first real date, that event would have been more problematic than it already had been) and to sharing things, things were going well. He supposed it helped that they both had their own houses to retreat to when one of them weren't feeling all that great and wanted to be alone, but he had to admit, he spent more time in his old house, with Bella, than at his own apartment. Maybe it was so easy because they gave each other the space that they needed.

Dealing with Bella out in the field was getting easier as well, especially now that they had settled in a good training regime and that he accepted that she could take care of herself. He could fully focus on the job instead of worrying about his team so much because Roy had shown improvement as well and as long as they were following the rules, things were good.

He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he felt that Bella coming down from an adrenaline rush after stopping some criminal was hot. She usually bounced all over the place and once time would literally try to pull Oliver into the closest area for privacy in an attempt to get rid of her high that way. She was his in every way he quickly learned. Always trying to push herself to the limits, never knowing when to stop with training either. It sure caught up with her more than a few times.

As part of her newly adopted routine, after Bella completed her work for Verdant, she made her way down to the basement. It was one of her forced rest days, so she wasn't allowed to do any training. A compromise that Oliver had made with her when she had pushed herself to the point where she was in so much pain and with no one from the team around at the time, Felicity had been forced to take her to the emergency room. With witnesses around, and there were many around the club, it would have been more suspicious to not do anything.

Who would have known how much the woman changed when she had a few Percocet inside her?

*_flashback_*

"Diggy!" Bella squealed as Felicity wheeled her out to the car at the back of Verdant where she had insisted the guys wait for them to come out. Felicity waited to call them about the unexpected side trip as they had been busy with their own Arrow duties while Bella stayed back with training and tending to club business, but she didn't anticipate the spectacle that their friend was making.

She was worn out herself, trying to keep the girl under control and couldn't help but to admire the strength Oliver had for dealing with her as he does. "Thank god," Felicity muttered. "She's all yours. They gave her some morphine and muscle relaxants before discharging her for strict bed rest and orders not to overexert herself _again_. She also has a prescription here for Percocet. I don't think she'll need it until tomorrow though."

"Then why didn't you meet us at her house?" Oliver wondered out loud as he looked at Bella. She was smiling widely and she looked a little out of it. "You really expect me to take her home like this?"

"Yes." Felicity replied. "Because I didn't fancy driving _that_ around for twenty more miles so, off you go."

Bella grinned up at Oliver as she looked at him completely unabashedly. "You're hot in your leather. You gonna strip for me?"

Oliver growled as he handed his bow and quiver to Diggle and lifted Bella out of the wheelchair before taking her to his car. He knew that Charlie wasn't home so it was safe to drive her home while still wearing his Arrow suit - he was not going to get changed now because she needed to go home. "We can't keep doing this, you know," he said after getting into the car himself and started to drive. What he said probably fell on deaf ears anyway, seeing as she was so out of it. They needed to do something to make sure this wasn't going to happen again. Maybe restrict her access to the basement or something.

She only responded with a giggle as she reached across the car for him. "Ollie! Don't say it like you actually mean that. You enjoy it just as much," she purred as she rested her head against his shoulder while her hand slipped over his, dangerously close to his groin.

Oliver hoped that she was going to fall asleep _soon_, otherwise it was going to be a long twenty miles to her house. "We'll talk about this when you're not all doped up."

"Mmhmm," Bella murmured as she snuggled into his side, dozing off as the music from the radio had begun to dull her senses with the medication. It wasn't long before she had nodded off against him, her head dipping down and a soft snore from the drugs escaping her.

_* end flashback *_

~o.O.o~

Both Felicity and Diggle had an interesting time with trying to see where Bella's shielding ability came from, this was mostly out of a scientific and survival point of view rather than fun, although they had _fun_ figuring it out. They even had Barry come over once to see if projectiles would even hit Bella, as he could see fast enough to notice any changes on her skin. Oliver did not like that they asked Roy to shoot arrows at his _girlfriend_, but he could see the reasoning in the scientific process of trying new things without a lot of people getting hurt. Such as Bella shielding Oliver from impact of an arrow. Oliver realized that his friends just liked shooting stuff at him for once and getting away with it because it was all in the name of science.

Barry, of course, got very excited during the tests, mostly because he could barely see any change on Bella's skin when she was impacted with something but he could see the thin layer of protection when she projected it to Oliver. He thought it was _very cool_ and promised to keep his mouth shut about her around his co-workers, especially Doctor Wells.

Of course, with Barry being around, Felicity was pleased because her boyfriend - or friend with benefits - was in town and as soon as the testing was over, she dragged him off to her house. Oliver didn't have to think much to know what was going to happen with those two and he was fine with it. He was happy that Felicity had someone she could be with, just like Diggle, and Oliver hoped that his sister, Thea, would eventually see reason and come back to them and Roy.

Bella scowled as she curled up on the armchair that she refused to allow Oliver to remove. She was frustrated with her agreement as she looked longingly at the boxing gloves laying nearby on a table. "Who's idea was this forced rest day again?" she questioned, knowing full and well whose it was.

"Your boyfriend, our boss," Felicity answered as she looked up from the computer. She had been trying to follow everyone in the Cullen family digitally since she had received that text message. It had been frustrating for her because, to the public, the parents appeared absolutely clean and the team knew better than anyone looks are extremely deceiving. Especially after Peter Warren's involvement in Bella's life over the last several years.

Yes, years. Before Oliver had contacted A.R.G.U.S to ship Peter off to a rubber cell, he had thoroughly interrogated the man himself and had been surprised by the revelation of Peter having been causing storms around Bella for years, and only had received the order to put more pressure on her when she moved to Starling City, further away from the Cullen's reach.

Having found Jasper Cullen in that warehouse four months ago had been a surprise, but it seemed that, like his sister Rosalie, he had gone off on his own, making his own future instead of being dependant and bullied around by his parents. Unfortunately for Jasper, he made the wrong decisions and escalated in his bad behaviour which ultimately resulted in him getting caught by Team Arrow.

With Esmé Cullen coming to Starling City for charitable work and actually making public appearances, it was important that Felicity kept tabs on the family and she had already found out that Carlisle Cullen had closed his practice and put their house up for sale. It definitely looked like all of the Cullens were coming to Starling City and even though it would make it easier for Oliver to go after them, it was also making things very difficult.

"What? Am I the bad guy, again?" Oliver asked as he walked down the stairs into the basement. "And here I thought I'd take my beautiful girlfriend out for a surprise trip on the motorcycle."

"You're supposed to be at QC."

"I was. And I was not needed, so here I am," Oliver stated as he squatted down in front of Bella, who was still moping in the chair. "What do you say? Fancy a ride?"

She eyed him suspiciously as she raised her head. "That depends on if we're going out on that motorcycle in uniform or not."

"No," he shook his head as he looked up to her. "I thought we'd go to a place where they sell the best coffee in town - neither you or Diggle have found it yet and I'm really surprised about that."

The thought of a new coffee shop had Bella at odds, biting her lip as she looked back at him. She didn't know whether she wanted to kiss him or slap him in that moment. "You play dirty," she complained.

"I play dirty?" Oliver beamed up to her. "I think you've done remarkably well by substituting at least one third of your coffee intake with tea to make your life a little bit healthier and I think that you deserve a treat. But hey," he got to his feet and shrugged. "If you don't want to go…"

"Pompous asshole," she cursed as she pushed herself up out of the chair and shoved him towards the stairs. "This coffee place better be worth it."

"Yep," he said as he leapt up the stairs. "And you know what we're going to do after?"

"Heading back to my place so that I can tie you up to my bed and fuck the shit out of you?" Bella smiled up at him.

"Well, maybe," Oliver said as he opened the door for her. "But how about we break one of my rules, just for once?"

She raised an eyebrow curiously, pausing beside him. He wasn't one for breaking rules which made her suspicious. "What's the cost for this broken rule?"

"Fun." Oliver smirked as he continued to walk towards the exit with a spring in his step.

Staring after him, she wasn't sure what to make of the the man before she ran after him. When she caught up, she was quiet for a moment, opening her mouth as she tried to find her words a couple times. "Who are you and what did you do with my boyfriend?"

Grinning, Oliver handed her her helmet and put his on. "You'll just have to find that out for yourself."

Narrowing her eyes on him, Bella pushed his helmet back before he could secure. She reached up and yanked a piece of his hair from his scalp with a smile before letting him go. "Great! I'll have Robin run some tests on this to find out just who you are," she replied as she kissed his cheek. Putting her own helmet on and climbing on behind him. "Let's ride, Cowboy."

Grinning, he fastened his helmet and started to drive them towards that new coffee place across town, taking the long way around just for Bella to see more of the city. Sure, they'd covered a lot of 'things to see in Starling City' but he still liked going places that even he hadn't been to in years.

The coffee shop was being run by good people who imported their own coffee and he had liked the way they had transformed the previously run down shop into something quite foreign looking, exotic. He parked the bike in front of the store and pulled off his helmet. "Rumors are that you can blend your own coffee here."

"Sounds like you're trying to butter me up for something Mr. Queen," she implied while eyeing the outside of the shop. It was certainly something that had her attention and the coffee lover in her was anxious to get inside.

"I'm not buttering you up. Like I said; you deserve a treat," he smiled at her as he opened the door for her, the smell of coffee wafting out of the building.

Bella could almost feel her mouth salivate at the aroma as she walked in. "Oh my god Ollie. How in the world did you find this place?" she questioned as she looked around with a huge grin on her face. Between the scent of the coffee that pulled her to the counter to view their menu, her eyes took in the decor and knew she could easily get lost in the place for hours. The man had no idea what he did by introducing her to this place. He would have been safer to just bring her the coffee and keeping it a secret.

Oliver grinned as he leaned against the doorpost. "You like?"

She shook her head no at his question as she pulled him with her to the counter to read the labels of the coffee beans and view the house made cakes they had on display. "Ooh, that sounds like it would be really strong," she muttered as she pointed to one label before moving onto others.

Oliver let her _fangirl_ over the coffee for a while as he took a seat with a big grin on his face. Yeah, this had been a good idea, a _very _good idea. "Welcome to the newest business venture of Queen Consolidated. All in secret, of course, and ten percent of its earnings go to charities across Starling City, thirty percent goes back into QC and twenty percent goes to you. The rest is for the shop itself."

Bella smiled over at him as she tried to get a grasp on the turbulent emotions she was feeling. Making her way over to him, she pulled his face into her hands and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Raise the charitable donations to fifteen percent and drop my share to the same and then it will be absolutely perfect," she said to him. "Thank you."

Oliver grinned and nodded. "Deal and you're welcome, just don't drown yourself in the coffee in here, okay? The people working here are a good team that we've hired and know their stuff. All affordable prices too; not as pricey as some."

"Yes, I can see that," she replied as she looked back over her shoulder. "It'll be difficult to keep the prices this low however. Importing coffee beans of this quality isn't cheap."

"I have my sources," Oliver smiled at her. "Don't worry about it. It's all legal and it's all above board. It's time that we give an example of how Starling City can be a good city again, by making sure that _everyone_ has access to the finer things."

"You're too good for me Mr. Queen. Now, would you like me to treat you to a cup from _our_ coffee shop?" she asked, a giddy grin plastered on her face as she looked at the menu, ready to try every blend they offered.

"Certainly," he smiled at her and got to his feet. "Eduardo, two cups of your finest, please!" He called out as he walked towards the counter and saw the man scurry out from the back with the biggest grin on his face. "I love what you've done to the place, well done."

"Thank you, Mr. Queen," Eduardo smiled back at him as he selected a few coffee beans to grind. "And for the opportunity."

"Don't mention it," Oliver waited patiently for the coffee and then returned to Bella with the cups. "Eduardo is from Italy and his family was in the coffee business until they ran into some trouble and came here. The Arrow helped them when their trouble had followed them and told me about the potential these people have. When my team suggested we branch out a little, I immediately thought about Eduardo."

Bella gave him a knowing look and eyed the man behind the counter. "Remind me to thank The Arrow properly later," she said, raising her cup to her lips to hide the smirk as she met his eyes.

He took a sip of the coffee - he had to admit, it was damn good coffee - and grinned. "We're going to have so much fun after this coffee. You have no idea what's going to happen."

"If you have some locked room with whips and chains somewhere that you haven't told me about, you and I are having another talk about keeping secrets," she said before taking her first sip and moaned out. Setting the cup down, she almost slid out of her seat dramatically as she had immediately fell in love with the coffee. "Okay. I have to have that man's baby for this. Not really, but this is good. Really good."

"No, it's not a locked room with whips and chains and-" he raised an eyebrow when she slid out of her chair. "Are you okay?"

"You should have never told me about this place," her voice came out muffled from under the table as she peered at him over it. "You know that, right?"

"Oh, but I should have, and I did," Oliver grinned. "It all has to do with self-restraint."

She glared at him as she pulled herself back up. Rolling her eyes, restraint was a subject of many of their arguments. There were things she was perfectly fine in controlling herself in, but after convincing her to at least give up a portion of her normal caffeine intake, then practically hand her unlimited coffee with a giant red bow, the man had to have lost his mind. "You are freaking crazy, you know that, right? Restraint? Right after you hand me a coffee shop practically gift wrapped? _Restraint?!_"

"See it as a box of chocolate you have to go days with instead of eating it all in one go," Oliver said amused as he took another sip of his coffee. "I'm mean, yes, I know. You can kill me later."

"Killing you would do nothing for me tonight," Bella huffed as she inhaled her cup before drinking from it again, letting out another hum of pleasure. Yes, this would become a regular visit for her. Probably more often than Oliver may like, but she didn't care.

"But I'm happy that you're happy with this place," he said with a nod and took another sip of his coffee before downing his cup entirely. "Ready for the next bit?"

She finished her coffee, though slower as she preferred to savour her drink. When she was finished, she nodded to him. "Alright. I'm kind of afraid to see what else you have planned for this adventure today after this surprise."

"I'll give you a hint; I've packed our workout clothes in the bike," Oliver said before he paid for the coffee and said bye to Eduardo.

Looking back at him, the girl felt more than relieved that it wasn't some extraordinarily spectacular event he was intending on. Bella wrapped her arms around his waist. "You do know that Charlie is out of town this week, right?" she whispered to him.

"Good," he said as he softly kissed her. "We can continue this day at your place then…" he grinned as he caressed a strand of hair out of her face. "But first, rule breaking. You're going to love it."

She pulled back from him as she looked at him peculiarly. One of the things that she learned about him over the months they'd been together was that he valued his routines almost as much as she did. For him to deviate so much, sparked some concern in her. "Oliver? You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?"

"I have an unexpected day off and I want to spend it with my girlfriend. Seeing as I'm never taking you anywhere, I decided to take you places and break the rule of this being your break day since I don't like doing nothing," Oliver explained as he looked at her. "You deserve some fun, so why would there be anything wrong?"

Bella shrugged, unsure of the feeling she had been struggling with. "I can't exactly explain. It just seemed that lately that Felicity had been keeping something from me but with everything going on, I didn't want to overwhelm her by pressuring her to tell me anything. She just clams up something fierce when I come around and she's on the computer," she replied. "I guess I was hoping that you might had known about it."

Oliver sighed as he tiredly rubbed his hand over his face. "Felicity doesn't want to bother you with the things she's doing. She's keeping a close eye on every single member of the Cullens so we know where they are at all times. Seeing as you get upset because of them, she doesn't want to bother you with it."

Sighing, she loosened her hold on him ready to let go, but didn't quite yet. "I'd rather have been kept in the loop than out. I don't know how many times I have to tell you all that I can handle it. They mean nothing to me and I would want nothing more than to kick their collective asses if I see them, but that little lecture you've beat into me about restraint comes back. I know you trust me in the field with you but I need you to trust me about them now, because right now, out of all of us, I'm pretty much the only one that can guess what they might do, simply because I used to know them once upon a time."

"I know that, but this isn't even my call, you know. Felicity just doesn't want you to get hurt." He softly kissed the top of her head. "I trust you, Bella. We all trust you. Felicity only wants to protect you," he smiled at her. "She's not listening to me about this, but maybe she will listen to _you_."

"Sure. When I threaten to take her computer hostage or break it over her head," she growled.

"No threats. Just normal talk." Oliver mused. "You can do normal talking, no need to threaten our computer girl."

"She only listens to anyone when it comes to her computer. You know this Oliver," she pointed out.

"Not really," Oliver replied. "She listens to Laurel without Laurel having to tell Felicity she'll break her computer. Felicity just doesn't want to listen to me and Diggle because she feels like she needs to mother us."

Bella blinked at him as she stared at him for a moment. "You really are so oblivious. Laurel has had a standing threat on that computer in the lair for awhile now. I must say that I was really proud and shocked at her that night."

"Alright, then threaten to cut the internet cable or wreck the internet thing that it comes through," he grinned. "Computers are expensive to replace, especially ones with her specifications."

"I have a large bank account. I think I can afford to replace it, but fine. Only cut off her internet access. You promised me a workout Cowboy. Where are we off to next?" she questioned as she pulled him back to the motorcycle.

"Parkour," Oliver grinned as he grabbed his helmet and put it back on. "I don't really have to do it but it's nice to practice some stuff when there's a mat underneath you."

She stared at him with an expression of mixed excitement, fascination, and absolute fear. "Really?" she asked in a slight squeak with her anticipation. It had been a routine he'd been reluctant to include her in before because of her unflinching ability to drive herself to exhaustion.

"Yes, however, when I say stop, we'll stop and no complaining, okay?" She had been taking unnecessary risks sometimes when they were out and the least he could do was to teach her the safe way of doing those unnecessary risks. "Oh, and don't tell Diggle. He'll kill me."

Nodding emphatically, Bella was the epitome of a bobble head doll in her exuberance for the upcoming activities. "I promise! No arguments, no complaining. Our little secret," she repeated.

He handed her her helmet and then fastened his. "Alright then," he said as he got on the bike and started it, waiting for her to climb onto it and hold on and sped off towards the gym. He felt giddy by the upcoming activity as it was simply so much fun to do. Exhausting but fun and he loved her enthusiasm. Maybe, if today went well, they could do it again. But that was a maybe still.

He parked the bike near the gym and removed his helmet. "Okay. So, we'll have the gym to ourselves. I called them up and said that _you_ were going to show me some moves because you ntthink it might come in handy should Diggle not be around and I need to make a quick getaway. We won't have any onlookers either." He then saw the look on her face, like an excited young puppy and he found that so adorable. "You're so cute," he grinned and softly kissed her.

Bella wasn't about to have a chaste kiss for the surprises he showered on her that day and deepened it as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You really are something else Oliver," she murmured once she finally pulled back for oxygen. Tracing her finger over his lip, she smiled up at him, "I think I have something special at home to thank you properly tonight."

~o.O.o~

Bella handled herself pretty well during their parkour fun once she got over the initial anxiety of just trusting the body to fall where it should. As suspected, after their hour and a half of fun, she had started showing signs of exhaustion while pushing herself further and he wasn't going to have any of that. He told her to stop and then carried her to the showers to take a shower. Since it wasn't allowed for two people sharing a shower, he quickly refreshed himself while waiting for her to come out of the locker room. "Coffee?"

She sighed at the thought, and shrugged. "We can make it at the house. We've been out all day and I think since you made me stop, it would be a good idea to spend the rest of the evening inside."

Oliver smiled as he handed her her helmet for the last time and drove them home, easily zig-zagging through traffic, reaching home faster than would they have been in a car. He stopped in front of the mansion and turned off the ignition before getting his helmet off. "You're sure your dad is out of town?"

"Positive. He left for a two week business trip to London on Friday," she smirked as she set her helmet aside and maneuvered herself between his legs as he climbed off. Running her hands down his back, they traveled further until they grabbed his ass as she grinned more broadly. "The house is _entirely_ mine. I even gave the cleaning staff the rest of the week off…"

"Okay…" he said as he put his arms around her with a wicked smile on his face. "What rooms do we still need to defile?"

Laughing, she pulled him in for a heated kiss, practically gluing her body to his. "Too many," she mumbled around his lips as her hands moved to begin pulling his shirt from where it was neatly tucked into his pants, eager for their night alone.

He lifted her up in his arms as they stumbled towards the house and managed to open the door without breaking the kiss. He kicked the door shut and set off to one of the many rooms they still had to claim as theirs.


	2. C'est La Vie

**~o.O.o~**

If there was one thing that was certain about their relationship that Bella knew wouldn't end anytime soon, it was their sexual desire for one another. It didn't take much for her to want him in any way, any place. Even finding him making them breakfast in the morning was enough to set her off. It helped that he was standing at the counter in nothing else but his boxers, leaving little for her mind to have to remember what they had shared only hours before.

Sneaking up behind him, she pressed her lips to his back as her hands snaked into the front of his shorts, smiling as his breath hitched. "Turn the stove off," she said firmly, her hunger for something other than food overpowering everything else in that moment.

"Yes ma'am," Oliver said before he did as she told him to and moved the pan to a colder place on the stove before turning around. She was wearing a sheer - pink - babydoll with a matching robe and his mouth watered. Swallowing hard, he managed to find his voice. "I thought you didn't like pink?" It came out as nothing but a murmur as he put his hands around her and kissed her passionately before she could get in a word.

She moaned as she returned his kiss hungrily, her nails leaving trails over the back of his shoulders."I don't, but I thought it was cute," Bella finally was able to answer, pressing herself against him. "And I take it you like it?"

"I do," he said as he tugged on her robe to pull her even closer. "But you know…" he started to kiss her neck and discarded her robe for easier access to her skin.

Her eyes rolled back in her head as she shrugged the fabric off of herself. "Fuck, Oliver... " she breathed out.

"You can fuck Oliver in a minute," he muttered as he pulled down one of the straps of her babydoll and playfully bit her shoulder.

She immediately grinned at his sudden foul mouth. It turned her on even more as she moaned, attempting to push his shorts off his hips. "Oliver..."

"What?" He asked huskily as he decided that getting into her panties was a better idea and slipped a hand in to press the palm of his hand against her heat. "No!" Oliver whined as his phone started to beep.

"Leave it," Bella growled as she tugged on his boxers.

"It's work…" Oliver said, eyeing his phone that was laying on the counter. "If I don't take this…"

"They're so glad that I don't own a stake in your company," Bella said as she withdrew her hands from him and got his hand out of her panties. "Take it, I'll finish making those pancakes."

"Sorry," He apologized as he grabbed the phone and answered it.

She rolled her eyes as she pulled her robe back on as she went to pull out the rest of the things they needed for breakfast. Listening idly for a break to catch his attention, she held up cartons of blueberries and strawberries for him to choose silently, but his lack of attention made her frown with concern. Setting them aside, she made her way back over to him as she ran her hand over his arm as he listened to whoever was speaking, unsure of what the problem was.

Oliver hung up and went straight for the tap to wash his hands. "Sorry about that," he said as he dried his hands and looked at her. "One member of my great new team is being a bit fussy about some things."

"Is everything alright?" Bella asked. "You know if there are problems, I'm more than willing to do what I can to help…"

"Yeah, it's fine, nothing worth calling over, really. Keller is a little bit funny and particular in her ways and McKay is not doing what he's told so they call me," Oliver shrugged. "They could have called their group leader Coleman about this but eh."

Bella scowled, not only because she didn't know who these people were, but also for the fact that the call interrupted a very pleasant morning and she could not help but wonder why these people would call the man on the weekend and so early. "I see," she murmured as she nodded slowly, trying to keep the suspicion out of her voice. "We can get back to breakfast then."

"Yes," he smiled widely as he pulled her back towards him. "Where were we?"

She gave him a stiff, but indulgent smile as the mood had been lost with her in that phone call. "We were going to defile our breakfast area but now I'm afraid I'm actually hungry for food," she said as she traced his tattoo with her fingertip. "Perhaps next time, you can remind your staff to call their actual supervisors first. Now you have someone to take your frustration out on Monday morning."

Oliver sighed as he leaned against the counter. "Well, I could always bring you and let you have a go at them…" he mused.

"They won't come out alive."

"It'd teach them a lesson for sure," Oliver grinned and softly kissed her. "Anything I can do for you to make this up to you?"

"Nope," Bella said as she let her lips pop out the word. Grabbing a berry from the tray she set aside, she smirked back at him. "I'm feeling strawberries in my pancakes this morning," she commented before letting her lips wrap around the flesh of the fruit to take a bite.

"Alright," he chuckled as he poured some strawberries into the batter and flopped it into the pan. "Anything else you'd like? Maybe add some chocolate in there as well?"

"Nope," she repeated as she moved away from him to grab herself a cup of coffee, rolling her eyes as her hand tightened in irritation around the handle of the pot. She knew she couldn't go work out at the club and she was hoping to get something set up inside the house soon when he was working, but hadn't gotten around to it. "Did you have anything planned for today?"

"No, not during the day at least," Oliver said as he flipped her pancake. "Thought I'd help you do the laundry and stuff, if you'd like."

Bella nodded as she gulped down the rest of her coffee. "Sounds great. I'm going to go jump in the shower and change real quick. I'll be right back," she said, needing to get away from him, craving some space since his phone call as she continued to feel unsettled by it. She didn't give him any opportunity to stop her as she slipped out of the room in her haste, returning to her room as she collected what she needed for her shower.

He sighed as he put her pancake on her plate and started making his own. He wasn't quite sure what had happened just now, since his phone call. She was stand-offish, cool, and that wasn't right. Sure, it was the weekend, but he had a deal with the team that whenever they needed him that they could call him. For it to be something as minor as this, yeah, maybe they handled it wrong but he was their boss. And they were working on a Saturday. Which was stupid.

She tried not to think much as she dried her hair and dressed, eyeing her reflection in the mirror. The last several months had been dramatically different compared to the previous years and she had never felt so alive. She couldn't understand the feelings that the seemingly innocent call from his work stirred inside her. Bella knew that she shouldn't be jealous and that Oliver had done nothing to disprove his loyalty to her, but the sudden fear that someone else might hold his attention caught her by surprise and she wasn't sure how to deal with it. So she did the only thing she could. Controlled her panic and ran.

After he was done with the pancakes, he decided to call Diggle. He had a better understanding of women than he did and he wouldn't tell anyone. It was still early morning, but he knew that Diggle was probably going to be at Verdant, listening to police scanners while sipping coffee; his pregnant girlfriend had made it a bit hard on him to stay at home sometimes due to her mood swings. It was amusing, really. Big guy fighting bad guys all the time but scared of his girlfriend. Oliver grabbed his phone and dialed Diggle's number.

"_You calling in sick?"_ Diggle's voice sounded on the other end of the phone.

"No. I don't think so. I might be running a little bit late because I said I'd help Bella a little…" Oliver said stupefied as he took a sip of his coffee. "Can I ask you something?"

"_Sure?"_

"Something personal?"

"_How personal?"_

Oliver sighed as he took a bite of his pancake. "Women," he eventually admitted, which was followed by laughter from Diggle. "What? I screwed up in the past, Dig, I don't want to screw up what Bella and I have because… it's just right, you know… I don't want to hurt her."

"_Alright, shoot."_

"We were having some fun and then I got a call from the office and then her behaviour changed. No more fun times and it's currently me and the pancakes."

It was quiet on the other line for a moment before Diggle came back. "_I think I need a little more information Oliver. Without telling me what you were actually doing, because I don't need that visual again. What happened after the call? What did you say to her?"_

"She asked if something was wrong and I said that it was nothing, just someone of the team calling me because they're tired of someone else's antics, because that's what happened. Maybe it was wrong of them to call me instead of their supervisor but they must have reasons." Oliver scratched his head. "I honestly don't know what happened."

Diggle was quiet for a minute again before replying with a long sigh. "_Yeah, you screwed up man. Felicity said she's being insecure. A strange woman she never met calling her man on his day off? Don't misunderstand. Bella trusts you, but you have to admit with the way your relationship started off with her own cousin all over you, she has some issues of other women coming in on her territory. She's had to chase off enough of them at the club, remember? Have you even told her how you feel about her yet?"_

Oliver was quiet for a moment as he thought of the words Diggle just had spoken and didn't quite like it that Felicity was listening in. "Isn't it clear how I feel about her? She's my girlfriend, I spend nearly every night with her and she's my partner…"

"_He really is an idiot," _Felicity's voice could be heard over the line, although muffled from it's distance before Diggle's came stronger. "_Women Oliver. No one will ever get the handbook right on them. Especially that one you're with. She lives to change the rules all the time. I imagine a little reassurance doesn't hurt. Don't you ever wonder if she feels the same way? Come to think of it, I don't think I ever heard her say the words…at least around us."_

"But if she didn't feel the same way, she would have dumped my ass already, wouldn't she?"

"_Oliver, Bella doesn't think the same way as everyone else. Remember how she functioned as an adult before coming here and she's still dealing with the Cullens. Can you blame her if she's afraid of admitting her feelings? Hell, she might not even realize it, but I know she's all in with you. You need to talk to her!" _Felicity snapped as she had seemed to have stolen the phone. "_So pull on your big boy pants and go after her and don't come to the Arrowcave until you've resolved this." _Felicity then hung up, leaving Oliver to stare at the phone, dumbstruck.

He thought it was incredibly silly of Felicity to say such a thing, that he needed to talk to Bella about his feelings for her because he wasn't quite sure if he could even begin to explain. Not to mention, it felt high school-ish. He walked up the stairs and went to Bella's bedroom, but she wasn't there yet. He got dressed and sat down on the bed, waiting for her like someone waiting on the school principal or at the doctor's office. He felt stupid.

~o.O.o~

Bella walked out of her bathroom as she finished pulling an over-sized sweater over her head, stopping short at seeing Oliver waiting for her. Looking around for a moment she raised an eyebrow at him. "I said I was coming right back down," she greeted with a hesitant smile, her fingers toying with the hem of the sweater.

"I know, but I wanted to come up," He held out his hand for her with a smile on his face. "What is it with you and making things look incredibly sexy?"

She shrugged as she moved over to him slowly, resting her arms over his shoulders. "Maybe you're just a sucker for my closet."

"Maybe," he smiled at her as he pulled her into his lap. "We need to talk, you and I."

Her eyes flashed up to his as she stiffened in his hold, not sure she was liking where this was going. "Oliver. Is this really necessary? There's a lot that we have to do today before we head to the club to suit up for our rounds tonight."

"According to how you've just stiffened up by the mention of us talking… yes. This is really necessary," he said as he put his arms around her, making sure she couldn't leave. "I don't know where to begin, to be honest."

"Then don't. When you know then we can revisit this later," she said quickly, trying to get up only to be held back, making her glare at him in warning.

"No, we're going to talk about this now because you want to run away from me and I don't want you to do that," Oliver said as he looked at her. "You need to know that I'd do anything for you, Bella. I'm not the man I used to be, I don't want to hurt you and… being with you has been a huge thing for me, you know…"

Bella's eyes grew large as she stared at him, blinking for a moment. "What? After last night and this morning you want to pull this shit now?" she hissed at him, shoving him back to force him to let her go. After her realization in the bathroom, she couldn't handle what she was hearing. "Let go."

"Bella, don't do this," he gently took her arm to keep her with him. "I don't want you to go, I don't want to let you go and I want to stay with you. You, and no one else."

If she was capable, the smoke that could be coming from her nostrils as she would be breathing fire at his words as she stared at him would have lit him on fire. "Why would you say something like that? After you got caught with some random chick calling you? Get your hands off of me Queen."

"If you want to meet Elizabeth, you can but that's not the point. Bella, she's work. She's nothing to me but a cog in the wheel that's my company. There are hundreds of women that work at QC, and men. I don't get jealous of the men you worked with at your company," he tried to reason with her, but was met only with a raised eyebrow.

"Steve?"

"Yes. And Derek and any other guy you've worked with." Oliver said as he looked at her. "I'm not jealous because I trust you. I'd break all of their bones if they'd do something to hurt you or upset you, but I'm not jealous."

"Of course I would tell them I'm taken! I would knock them on their ass and remind them that I'm with you and that I'm happily in love with you and they had no hope!" she snapped as she pushed herself free him his hold finally, pacing the floor as she shook with her anger.

Oliver was fed up with her wanting to run all the time. "Every woman I work with _knows_ that I belong to you, Bella. If you need a refresher, it's been all over the news that you and I are together. There's no need for you to be jealous because you're all I want!" he said as he got to his feet. "And I love you too!" He'd surprised himself with that last bit.

She glanced back at him, nervous, excited, and embarrassed, but still very much fighting the rage she was feeling moments before. "You what?" she asked, her voice softer for the first time since he tried to force this talk on her, not sure she heard him right.

He approached her and stood toe to toe with her, keeping his hands to his side. Oliver looked down on her and took a deep breath, calming himself down. "I love you too," he said again, probably a bit embarrassed because it took him a while to get the nerve to say it and that only annoyance got it out of him.

"How long?" she asked, curious but it was quickly obvious that she was settling down. "Because I think I, um, only just realized it just now…" she admitted, gesturing towards the bathroom where she had been getting ready in only minutes before.

"I don't know…" he admitted and then thought for a moment. The results were shocking but, then again, he wasn't really good at sharing his feelings properly. "Probably a couple of months or so…"

Bella was still seemingly in a state of shock as she stared up at him. The admission clearly would change some dynamic between them, as it had before they could actually say the words and they felt them, even if it were the dark side of the emotion. "Cue awkward moment," she murmured, shifting uncomfortably with a shy smile ghosting her lips.

"Nothing awkward…" he said softly as he gently put his hands on her cheeks and kissed her lips. "Just two idiots in a relationship."

She couldn't help but to let out a laugh as she leaned into him, taking a deep breath. "I think that's exactly how Alfred would describe us if he witnessed this."

"We should make a specialized greeting card for Christmas just for him. 'With love, two idiots in a relationship'." His hands moved to her back and smiled at her. "I'm not going anywhere, ever. You're stuck with me for life."

Sighing, Bella's head dropped to his shoulder. "Ollie, that just took a lot out of me. Let's not get into anything heavier than the L word, please? You can't see the future to make promises like that."

"Okay," he said as he lifted her up and put her down on the bed before he snuggled up to her. "Let's nap."

She shoved him in the shoulder once he was settled next to her. "We just got out of bed," she pointed out.

"So?" He grinned. "We work two or three jobs, we're allowed to stay in bed as long as we want."

"And just how long do you think you can keep up that nap ruse? I know you Oliver," Bella smirked as she moved to lay half on top of him as she let her fingers trace the skin along his shirt collar. "You're as insatiable as I am."

"It's a shame it's your rest day, really…" he teased as his hand found a way underneath her sweater and onto her back. "I could have said that this could be a lesson on self-restraint for the both of us but yeah… not going to happen."

"Call it celebratory?" she suggested as she slowly succumbed under his touch, her eyes drifting closed as she reveled in his attention.

He hummed in agreement and kissed her as he rolled the both of them over so that she was on the bottom and he had easy access to everything. "I could do with some celebratory breakfast…" Oliver said huskily as his hand found its way between her legs.

Her body shook as she opened her legs to wrap around his body as she pulled his face to hers as she claimed his mouth hungrily. Her other hand wrapped around his neck to hold to her as she rolled her hips against his in her growing desire. Moaning, she bit down on his lip with a grin, "A feast…"

"Best meal ever," he rolled up her sweater and caressed her stomach before making his way up to her breasts. He was about to kiss her neck when his phone rang. Again. "What the…"

"If you pick it up, I'll kill you."

Oliver held up the phone and showed Bella who was calling.

"Fine," Bella said, pushing Oliver off of her as he took the call.

Oliver sighed as he flopped on his back and answered the phone. "Detective…"

"_Captain."_

"What can I do for you?"

"_My people got into trouble during a raid, I was wondering if you and your people could help us out."_

Oliver rubbed his face. He hated going out during the day, it was a lot harder to conceal his and Bella's identity than during the night. "Are your people trapped somewhere?"

"_They're safe, for now, but they have no way out."_

Bella looked at the time, unsure about the overall safety considering the time of day as well. Sitting up as she straightened her clothes, she looked at Oliver and shrugged.

"Hold on," Oliver said as he covered his phone. "What do you think?"

"It's risky," she whispered. "Just how secure are his people? Can they hold out until the sun starts to set? We can station ourselves closer to keep an eye on things until its safer for us but only move in if necessary. Who were they trying to raid?"

"I agree," Oliver said with a nod. "He usually only calls when he needs help like now. Can't we send your guys or something? We'll go there to keep an eye out, but your guys do the work?"

She thought about it for a moment and nodded. "It's an option. I'll call Derek to see who has - shit. He's with Dad in London. I don't know what's going on as much since I left," she said shaking her head as she reached for her phone. "Let me call Steve. He'll have a few people together within an hour."

Oliver nodded and took his hand off the phone. "How secure are your guys, detective?"

"_They're not in immediate danger, but time is of the essence as they believe this group is up to something. They have state of the art machinery and know how to use it. There are booby traps in the building, some of them disarmed by my men but if I send in more… they could die."_

Oliver nodded. Better send in the people who didn't have a family to come home to, although Lance should have known better. "We can be there in an hour and we'll bring in some specialists. Send me the address." Oliver disconnected the phone and looked at Bella. "Steve can't know that he's dealing with us out there, that's the only thing I want."

"He won't know that we'll be there, but he isn't stupid Oliver," she murmured as she looked at him. "He's been giving me questioning looks since the last time I called him for back up."

"I know he's not stupid, but as long as we can _pretend_ that he doesn't know anything then it's fine with me."

"Pretending is only going to get you so far," she smiled. "One day it'll bite you in the ass. Look, I understand your hesitation. I get it. Believe me. But of everyone in that company, he is probably the only one I would even suggest telling if push came to shove. Even though I never told him about myself, he knows I'm different and he hasn't said anything if that counts for anything. He's seen me get shot. We just never discussed it."

"I just need to get to know him better, sorry," Oliver said as he got off the bed. "I'll get the bike ready for us to swing by the basement first."

Bella grinned as she shoved her phone in her pocket. "Great. It's a good thing you said you need to get to know him because you'll have plenty of chances. I hired him as an extra bouncer off the books on Friday nights," she said as she walked passed him, patting his cheek in the process.

"Of course you did," he shook his head in amusement and made his way downstairs. "We should get you a bike of your own one of these days, what do you think?"

"Sounds great. If we get this shit finished quickly, then we can take a trip past the dealership. Maybe something black or a deep purple-red to match my hair when I'm on duty?" she smirked as she twisted her strands around her finger.

He stuck out his tongue to her and handed her her helmet. "We'll call Felicity and Diggle on the way."

"I think you just want to see me with some hot machinery between my legs," she teased as she settled in behind him. "No worries. I'm game."

"No, it's just easier to maneuver when we're all on separate bikes, Roy has his own, I have mine… you should have one too," he said with a shrug as he secured his helmet. "Although maybe it's better if you don't get your own bike. Seeing as you're a bit trigger happy."

"I promised I would aim only for kneecaps! Do you want it in writing and notarized?" Bella questioned as she pinched the skin on his stomach.

"It's harder to aim for the kneecaps when they're obscured on a bike or when you're going fast on the bike, trust me." Oliver laughed as he started the bike and sped off.

"Fine. Any available joint or extremity. No vital organs…"

"You can get your own bike… only for recreational purposes, how's that?"

"No. Not fair."

"Fine. You'll get one on a trial basis when we're out."

Bella smiled into her helmet as she held onto him, sensing her triumph but knowing that if she celebrated it, he would only back peddle faster than anything. "Maybe a BMW," she mused aloud to herself.

"Not too bulky," Oliver reminded her as he turned a corner and ordered his built in headset to call Felicity.

"_Did you work things out?"_

"Yes. I've sent you a text message, do you have eyes on that building?"

"_Yes."_

"Keep them there, we're on our way to gear up and head out."

"_Did you say it?"_

Oliver growled and disconnected.

Bella was confused about the conversation. "What was that about? Say what?"

"Nothing," Oliver sighed. "I uh… needed some help with the women's handbook earlier so I called Diggle."

"Diggle...is not a woman," she pointed out. "I assume Robin was being nosey on your conversation? Shall I kick her ass?"

"Nah, it all worked out." Oliver said as he turned a corner.

"And if I still want to kick someone's ass? Who do I see for that? Because that's twice this morning we were interrupted," Bella reminded him. "I'm beginning to see a pattern. It's not looking pretty either."

"You can kick Roy's ass. If all fails, blame Roy," He responded. "And yes, it seems like the universe is against us having some fun, but we will beat the universe to a pulp."

Sighing, Bella held onto him as he took another turn. She didn't say anything else on the way to the club, having turned over to her thoughts about that morning and how something so minor could change them. While on the outside they were still very much the same, she did feel different with him. When the club finally came within eyesight, she couldn't help but be relieved because, then she could find something new to drive the frustration and pent up anger that hadn't had a proper release from the day, out.

He parked the bike and took off his helmet. "I think we should bring Roy along too, just in case," Oliver said as he walked into the club. "What do you think?"

"Great idea. I can hit him over the head with my bo-staff if he gets in the way," she smirked as she winked at him. "You know he's always welcome. He's gotten better with his training on the rifles, you know."

"And I still don't like the idea of him and rifles," Oliver nodded. "But he's progressed very well over the last few months, at least there weren't any slip ups."

"You need to have a little bit more confidence in us. It'll help us with our performance too you know," she said, irritated with his constant negative attitude on things. They all busted their asses just as hard as he him, and it was getting on her nerves.

"I have all the confidence in the world in you two, otherwise I wouldn't bring you along." Oliver said as he opened the door to the basement and walked down the stairs. "Roy, suit up, you're coming with."

"Okay," Roy said with a nod and headed to his suit.

"I don't like the idea of you guys going out during the day," Diggle said as he was leaning against Felicity's desk.

Bella went straight to her display with her uniform, taking it down as she began to change. "Neither do we but it's for family. I called Steve and he's going in himself with some people from the security firm. We're just going to stay back and watch in case they need us as a last resort. Uncle Q called specifically for our kind of help though, so it has us worried."

"Do you want me to come with?" Diggle asked as he watched the three people change.

"No," Oliver said as he looked at Felicity. "What can you tell us about the situation?"

"Detec- Captain Lance's people seem to be stuck in a corridor that either they've obstructed themselves or the ceiling came down. I can't really see what's going on other than a flash of a weapon sometimes when the security camera's outside are aimed properly," Felicity said and sighed. "And I don't like this either."

"Yeah well, we all don't like it but we're going to do it anyway," Oliver said as he checked his gear. "Keep your eyes on the building and keep us in the loop, okay?"

"Roger," she replied as she continued to flip through the available camera feeds. "Be careful out there. I'll widen the area to pull in extra cameras once you let me know where you're taking point so that I can keep an eye from here if there is anyone coming."

"Good," Oliver looked at Roy and Bella. "Ready?"

She nodded as she pulled two handguns out of the drawer and slid them into her boots, along with an extra ammunition clip each, and secured her bo-staff to her back. "Yep, let's party," she said as she pulled her hood over her wig and moved to join the boys.

They went by bike, as it was easier to get to the building and hide the bike, and upon approach, Oliver was already looking for a great vantage point. He didn't want to be seen by the people gathered around the building and certainly not by the trigger happy cops. Luckily, there was a building with a flat roof next to the building being sieged and there was a good hiding spot for the bikes as well behind some dumpsters. "We're going up."

As Bella took off her helmet, she looked around the area and up, grimacing. "Just how do you expect me to get up there? There's no fire escape Bruce," she commented. "I'm still having trouble with your rope exercise."

"Just hang on to me," Oliver smiled as he put his helmet down and got one of his arrows out. Roy did the same as they shot an arrow into the roof. "Winches, they rock, no need for rope climbing, that's just to get some muscles to work out," he grinned as he grabbed her by the waist, making sure that he held her tightly and she was holding on to him and then clicked a button to hoist themselves up to the roof, with him occasionally pushing himself off against the wall so they wouldn't smack into the concrete.

"Hmm, you know, maybe you should come over tonight with some of these toys and your uniform," she teased as she nipped at his jaw before turning away to go survey their view from the roof, staying low as she looked around. Pulling her bag around from her shoulder, she pulled out her standard sniper rifle she brought along and pulled out the scope from the case. "There are two guards on the other roof but they don't seem concerned. They are sitting on the other side of the wall, smoking and having a grand ol' time with themselves."

"Friendlies?" Oliver asked as he looked at the windows, he could see some movement in the darkness in the other building. "Because we could take them out if they're not."

"Doubtful. They are probably just keeping an eye out, weaklings of the group. They should be easy to take down with minimal effort. No bullets unless you are willing to let me try these new darts for the rifle that Alfred and Robin made up?" she asked, holding up the case with an eager eye.

"Yeah, go for it," Oliver said with a nod.

Loading up the first dart in the gun after she pieced it together and set it up, Bella lined up her first shot and pulled the trigger. Quickly loading the second dart, she shot the second guy before he could move for the radio that was sitting outside of their reach. "Done. It's a small dose though. I would recommend checking them first if we head in to see how deep the dart got them because a full dose will only last about two hours max."

"We'll get over there if we have to," Oliver said as he kept looking at the building. "Great shot, Bella."

"Of course. It's what I do best," she scoffed as she looked at him, giving him a wink at his compliment. "Chuck is, very surprisingly, a good shot too. A natural even. If we have to go in, let him stay up here to hit anyone with the darts so that I can protect you and whoever else might need it. In this case, I'll be of more use down there."

"Yeah yeah," Oliver said with a nod. "What's that? Three floors up, second window on the left. Can you see what's happening there?"

Peering into the scope, she looked at the area he indicated. Keeping an eye on the building, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and held it out in a random direction. "Shit. This just got a lot more complicated. Call Steve on my phone and warn him there are civilians in the building still. Appears they locked themselves into a storage room of some sort."

Oliver took Bella's phone and hesitantly dialed Steve's number before putting it on speaker so Bella could talk to him herself.

"_Kinda busy here, boss,"_ Steve's voice sounded from the phone after a ringing a couple of times.

"There are civilians in the building. Third floor towards the front of the building. Secured for now but be careful. If you need additional help - let us know," she said as she shifted the scope to move over the other windows. "Where are you?"

"_Copy that. First floor cleared, just about to head up the stairs on the south side."_

She moved to locate him, and searched from her position for additional threats. "I don't get it. Everyone was supposed to have been here an hour ago. We saw gun fire on security feeds. There are already two lookouts on the roof incapacitated for the moment. Where is everyone?"

"_We took down two unfriendlies on the first floor. There's a massive amount of offices they could be hiding in. I'm not sure what they're doing in here. This is the headquarters of a chain of supermarkets. It's madness."_

"Maybe they have a beef with the chain owner and decided to go overboard," Oliver muttered as he kept looking at the building, but it looked like that most of the offices on this side were empty. "I've seen weirder things."

Bella was tempted to look over at him for his comment but refrained. "I don't want to know. Something doesn't feel right about this Oliver," she muttered. "Doesn't this feel wrong to you?"

"It's too quiet," Oliver said with a nod. "We need to get in there to see for ourselves."

"_Hey, I found Starling City's finest. I'll have them escorted down. The trip from here is only going to get more interesting seeing as they've boobytrapped the place."_ Steve's voice sounded.

"What kind of obstacles have you come across so far?" Bella questioned curiously.

"_None as these fine people already got rid of some but the one I'm staring at now involves electricity, so if you could get someone to shut down the power to the building that would just be grand."_

She looked over to Oliver at that, knowing that the power company can take hours to respond for a request like that. While she knew she was incapable of being harmed in most ways, depending on the way these traps were rigged, she didn't know if she would be as immune.

"On it," Oliver said as he tapped his earpiece. "Felicity, where does the power enter the building?"

"_West side, there's a small building that also holds the back up generator."_

"Thanks."

"_Hey, Ollie? Why would the headquarters of a supermarket chain have a back up generator?"_

"Why don't you find that out?" Oliver said before muting Felicity and looked at Roy. "You stay here," he said with a nod and then looked at Bella. "Are you coming? We're going to the west side and take out the power."

Handing off the rifle to Roy, she grinned. "Ammo is in the bag, tranquilizers in the box. You know those have to be hand loaded one by one. Sucks but whatever. Let's go kick some ass," she said as she pulled her hood back up over her head, joining Oliver.

He walked to the far right of the roof and realized that jumping down wasn't an option and decided to shoot one of his rope arrows into the roof they were on. He grinned at Bella as he reversed the winch on his bow before he put his arm around her waist. "Hold on really tight. Don't let go of me."

"Never," Bella smiled as she held onto him tightly, the movement and tone of her voice implying everything to him.

"Going down," Oliver grinned as he hopped off the roof with Bella hanging on tightly.


	3. The Mercy Seat

**Authors Notes: We, Meeko & Buggy, have been writing all day, simply because we wanted to on a new project that was very much inspired by the epic The Flash/Arrow crossover event this past week, and a particular scene that was in episode one of the crossovers. We hope to post them soon, and while there are spoilers in the story for the episodes, we certainly have given it our own twist to the universe. Of course, in our excitement for the writing bug to be bitten, it _really_ needs severe editing and revising before it's post worthy so we're not sure how long it will be until it's up. Soon, we hope. Anyways, enjoy the next chapter in the meanwhile!**

**~o.O.o~**

After they landed on the ground, Oliver released his bow from the wire and looked up to the building from their spot between the building they were on and the one next to it. "Looks clear, come on," he said as he started to run towards the back of the building, quietly cursing that there were no trees to hide between for the both of them.

Bella pulled one of her guns out of her boot and held it at a ready stance, her back against the building as they made their way around. "At this point don't worry about it. Robin? Do you see anyone that might be watching?" she asked.

"_No, you're good to go,"_ Felicity replied. "_Be careful though, I don't have a clear visual on the _

_building that holds the power, they might have done something with it."_

"Just do what you can to find out who is behind this mess. We'll deal with this generator issue," she replied as she pushed forward, heading for the door, her eyes keeping sharp for anyone that might be around.

Oliver shot the lock of the power house from a distance to make sure that it was open and not hooked up to something before continuing their approach to it.

"_Please be careful," _Felicity's voice sounded a bit panicked. "_I can't see you and I don't want you two to end up like crispy critters."_

"I'll go in first," Bella murmured, knowing he wouldn't like it but she had less chance of serious injury compared to him. "Don't argue with me. After this morning, I think you can understand that I want to get back with both of us in one piece."

Oliver pointed to the house as he nodded. "Ladies first," he saw her approach the house and went in, gun first. He gave her a few seconds and then followed her in. It wasn't a big power house and you could feel the electricity tingling on your skin. "So uhm… now what?"

"_For the love of God, Ollie, don't caveman it because it'll explode."_

"It's not like there's an off switch!" Oliver grunted and then pulled Bella out of there, having an idea. "Let's cause a distraction," he said as he pulled her further away and got two flare arrows out of his quiver before lining them up.

She looked back at him and hissed, questioning his sanity. "Oliver! What are you doing?!" she whispered harshly.

"_He's going to caveman it, isn't he?"_ Felicity sighed audibly.

"Don't you know it…"

He released the arrows and out of instinct, grabbed Bella to shield her from the blast as he pushed them down to the ground. Upon impact, the power house exploded into a big ball of fire and some debris flew in the air, landing on top of them but didn't get them injured as Bella had found her way to her secret flap underneath his shoulder padding and made contact with his skin.

Coughing through the smoke, Bella tried to lift her head and look around. "Ugh," she grunted out, pushing a large piece of sheet rock wall that fell on top of them through the explosion. "You need to stop blowing shit up like this. I don't want to hear any more shit about my firearms," she managed to get out between coughs as she pushed herself to her knees to look around and take in the damage.

"It's fine," Oliver said as he dusted himself off. "It's just a tiny powerhouse and nobody got hurt," he then looked to the door of the building and saw it move. "However, we need to move," he tugged on Bella's arm before loading up his bow and aimed it at the door.

She quickly went to pick up her gun that she had dropped in the explosion, readying herself as the door opened for whoever was coming in. Glancing behind them, she tried to see if there was somewhere that could be used for cover but didn't see any. "Next time, give the girls a chance to use their brain before you go all bang, bang, smash mode Bruce," she muttered.

Even though it had been his idea to ask Bella for her people's help, it had also been the worst idea ever because now they had to take a beat to see if the people getting out of the door were friendlies or not and that second could get them killed. However the last time they spoke to Steve, he was on the other end of the building so it was pretty clear that these were some of the raiders checking out what was going on. He fired off one of his arrows into the first guy stepping out the door and lined up another as he and Bella were retreating towards the nearest corner.

Bella had slipped her hand back under the shoulder flap of Oliver's uniform as she shot the following person exiting as they came out with their own weapon poised to shoot. "Crapshoot. This is a crapshoot! This is beginning to feel like a fucking trap," she called out, firing her gun at another man coming around a corner, hitting him in the leg.

"Relax, don't panic," Oliver said calmly as he kept firing off his arrows - not really caring about casualties or not at the moment. "Breathe."

"I am fucking breathing and calm. This is me pissed off at the situation," she snapped at him.

"Get it under control or you're going back up to the roof," he said as he turned around and started to run back towards the building where Roy was. This was useless, how many people were involved in this raid?

She merely glared at him as she managed to check her remaining bullets she had in her current cartridge. "Robin? Any chance that you can wire Steve in on our signal? We need to know what he's seeing. We just ran into a little snafu down here."

"_The fastest I can do is to put him through on his phone,"_ Felicity said, followed by some frantic typing.

Seeing as there had been people pouring out of this door near to the power house, Oliver figured that there weren't any boobytraps in that stairwell. Knowing that he and Bella didn't need their main weapons to function to take someone down, he skidded to a halt and then turned around after tapping her on her shoulder to go to the door. "We're going in," he announced as he pulled some arrows out of the bodies on the floor. "Felicity, I want you to find out anything you can about this company, how deep it goes, what it's tied in with. This is too ridiculous for just a disgruntled employee."

Sadly, more and more, the simple stopping of crime or catching criminals were getting less simple than initially thought were happening more often than not and that annoyed Oliver. It was almost as if it was part of a bigger pattern, someone instructing them what to do, a group of people stress testing the police department, but for what end? "Also see if there are any connections to previous raids in the last couple of months," Oliver added before he looked at Bella with his hand on the door. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," she murmured, tense and ready to battle. With a nod, confirming both to herself and to him, she braced herself for whatever might surprise them.

He opened the door and got in, there was no other way to get in but to turn right and head up the stairs. Oliver crouched as he climbed the stairs, staying out of sight as the wall started to even out the further he climbed.

"_Nice distraction," _Steve's voice sounded over their feed. "_Half of them scattered to go and see what was going on."_

"Men," Bella huffed as she moved ahead of Oliver to check and clear the nearest rooms before moving on. "You are all the same. Have to blow things up and consider it mission accomplished. I don't know what I'm going to do with all of you."

Oliver looked at Bella as she was about to set off a trip wire. "Stop," he said as he quickly made his way towards her to see where the wire was going. He saw the wire connected to the wall and that it was running further down the corridor. He stepped over the wire and followed it to its end destination; a suspended desk that would be released upon tripping the wire. "Juvenile booby trap," he said as he took hold of the table before he cut the wire and set it back on the ground.

She slowly let out the breath she'd been holding before moving forward, more careful with her steps as she eyed each corner apprehensively. "Did you reach the civies yet?" she asked her friend.

"_Almost, the targets are on the fourth floor so be careful on your way up."_

Bella looked back at Oliver. "What do you want to do? Help him first or go straight up?" she asked. "I vote we just go ahead. We can keep whoever is up there busy while they get the innocents out and they can back us up after if shit hits the fan."

"Yeah, we're going up, I want this to be over," Oliver grumbled as he checked the next stairwell.

"Let's rock," she grinned at him, ready. Following behind him, she kept an eye on their tail, as well as randomly looking out the window for any new threats. "How's our friends on the roof? Any signs of them waking yet?"

_"Yeah but I shot them again."_ Roy said, Oliver could hear that he had a big grin on his face.

She couldn't help but smile with pride with him. "Good boy," she replied. "Keep your eyes out. We're going on ahead past the others so we don't know what we're coming up against. Do you see anything on the fourth floor?"

_"Nope, the blinds are down."_

Oliver continued to go up the staircase towards the fourth floor and when he reached it, he realized that there was no safe way in from this side as the door handle was gone and after pushing against it, it wouldn't budge. Normally he would just try to blow up the door with an explosive dart, but it wasn't just him right now. There was Bella and Steve and his team to think of and he didn't know what was behind that door. "This side is blocked," he stated.

"_I'm already working on getting the blueprints of the building. There should be another stairwell at the other end of the hall, but you need to go back down to the second floor to access it," _Felicity voiced in.

"Thanks for telling us _now_," Bella replied as she tried looking the rest of the way up the stairs as she thought about a different way. "What about dropping in from above?"

"I ran out of those arrows," Oliver pointed out. "Besides, we don't know what's going on in there... Unless you want to go in blindly because then there's a way."

Shaking her head, there were little options. "Either way we go, we're blind. No matter what trap they have set, it's a better option for me to go first as it more than likely won't affect me. What did you have in mind?" she questioned as she turned her attention back onto him.

"Go one level up and climb down, the ledges are wide enough, and then get in... Maybe time it with Steve bursting through the other door."

"_Sounds like a good plan to me. Just let us get these people out of here and we'll meet up with you. I have my climbing gear in my bag you can use,"_ Steve replied over their comm though it was muffled as he was in the process of getting the people they found out of the building.

"Nah, not needed but thanks," Oliver replied as he started to climb the stairs again.

Rolling her eyes, Bella ran after him to keep up, making a mental note to herself to increase her cardio with Diggle. By the time they reached the fifth floor, she was starting to develop a bad feeling but shook it off. Taking her spot beside him, she eyed down the hallway behind them. "Nothing this way so far. I'll clear the rooms…"

"I'll go the other way to clear it and then we're going to do some climbing," Oliver grinned at her before walking into the other direction. It was weird how the entire floor was clear, it was almost as if the group hadn't thought about securing the upper levels. "Felicity."

_"Yeah, I found something and you're not going to like it."_

"Continue."

_"Okay, so... All the businesses targeted in this manner, one way or the other, have branches in Seattle." _Felicity spoke quickly. _"This is the first time they've been sort of smart with their comings and goings, more elaborate, as they never get caught. The CEO of this particular branch is exploiting their people and it's basically a strike. Just... A dangerous one."_

"Seriously?"

_"Well that, and this guy is super rich. All the people he's connected to have something to hide so maybe they're digging for secrets? I can only speculate from here, you know."_

"Fine."

_"I checked the security feeds around the building from before the heist and uhm, facial recognition came back for Alice Cullen."_

Bella stopped as she heard the the name and looked at Oliver who had rejoined her. "You can't be serious. I thought we would be dealing with Esme first, maybe even Edward," she whispered to him as she tried to think of what the girl would be up to. "What the hell is that family up to?"

"Maybe they've been up to more than you had realized," Oliver said as he gently rubbed Bella's back. "Or, maybe something changed them, you don't know until you get the chance to ask."

Scoffing, she shot him a look that questioned his sanity. "The only thing I'm questioning them is their sizes for their prison jumpers because I don't care for much else. That and what they did with Rosalie because I haven't _heard_ from her since I moved back here,"

"Well, you might get your chance to ask Alice today," He said as he pulled her along to an office he liked because the ledge outside was slightly broader than on the other side.

"I'll ask her then punch her in her elfin face," she grumbled as she secured her gun at her waist after switching out the magazine for a full one. "One good thing with this appearance is that we don't have to be sitting and waiting any more."

"Yep," Oliver said as he opened the window and stepped out of it before holding out his hand for Bella to come and join him on the ledge. "I'll lower myself first and then I'll help you down too, okay?"

Grimacing as she looked out the window and down to the street below, she wasn't very keen on the idea anymore. "Whose idea was this again?"

"Don't look down, look at me."

She dragged her eyes towards him. "Yeah, still have some issues we need to work on here. Add it to the laundry list of things to deal with."

"Noted," Oliver smiled at her, still holding his hand out to her. "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."

"_Don't tell me she still has issues with heights…"_

"She'll be fine," Oliver said to Steve on the feed. "She's brilliant."

Taking a deep, Bella nodded and smiled back, ready to continue. "_Of course she is. Just kick her in the ass and get moving. The last civ is out. We'll be heading up the other stairwell in two minutes."_

"You both are assholes sometimes, you know that?" she commented as she climbed out the window and stood with her back as close to the building as possible. Her hand that continued to hold Oliver's was tight as it gripped his, knuckles white from the amount of pressure she was exerting, but her breathing and overall appearance remained neutral.

"See? Not so bad," he smiled at her. "Keep your eyes on me, don't look away from me." Oliver said as he squatted and then started to lower himself down the ledge.

She could only continue to nod as she followed him. Moving just behind as they worked their way down to the floor below. She knew she would be sore from this the following day, but nothing like the workouts she had put herself through. This was simply using her muscles in a different way than she was accustomed to as he helped her feet catch the landing again. "I'm going to peel that bitch's skin from her body and enjoy every moment," she muttered, careful to keep her eyes away from the street and on her Oliver.

"That's great, well done," he smiled as they were standing on the ledge below the one they started at. "Steve, we're close to your stairwell, say the word and we'll shatter the window and head in."

"_Yeah, hang on. Having trouble getting through the door here. Looking like we're going to have to blow our way in…I know I had some C4 in this vest..."_

"Cool," Oliver grinned as he held on to Bella.

"We'll enter on the explosion. It'll be distracting enough and likely disorient anyone on this side that we can take them down quicker," she commented as she tried to peer around the drawn blinds.

"_Beer afterwards?"_

"Tequila."

"_I don't think so. Man, keep your girl away from Jose. She's a bitch on the worm."_

"Fine. Coronas."

"Whatever she wants, she can get," Oliver said as he looked at her with a smile on his face. "It'll be fun."

Steve chuckled over the comm. "_You're the one sleeping with her. Your funeral but it was nice knowing ya. We're set here. Fireworks in 3...2...1…"_

The rumble from the explosion nearly knocked Bella off of the ledge and if Oliver hadn't already had a firm hand holding her, she would have gone over. Gripping the sill as they rode out the initial blast wave, she pulled out her gun and banged the handle on the glass of the window, searching for the weak spot before firing a single round into it. As it shattered, she pushed the sheeted glass away so that they could climb in, finding the room empty, but filled with smoke.

Coughing, Oliver took Bella's hand and started running to the next office in the confusion where there was less smoke and a better vantage point to shoot at people. He quickly fired off a few arrows at the sound of gunfire, obviously the raiders were unable to see until the smoke cleared at least a little, but the sound of them yelling at each other gave them away too.

Bella had her gun aimed, more hesitant as she was having difficulty with the smoke clearing from her own vision. Firing only when she was sure it was the enemy, she had hit them as they were closer, taking them one by one, staying close to her partner. "Complications, but dealing," she reported to him as she fired at another since he was busy as well.

He heard the sound of breaking glass, people were getting air into the level so that the smoke would disappear. The gunfire had stopped, but he could hear how people were scattering. "Where are you guys going?"

"_Offices."_

"Okay," he said before turning to Bella. "I'm out of arrows, I'm going in."

"Wait," she said as she reached into her boot to grab her other handgun and magazine. "I don't want to hear any bitching. Do what you need to. I'll be behind you in a minute."

Shrugging, Oliver took a few steps back and then noticed some shadow in the smoke. He ran towards his target and knocked it out with the bow before noticing someone else behind him and took a swipe at the legs. He turned around on his feet and hit that person with his bow as well.

Bella followed after him, joining in as she pulled out her bo-staff and striking the first assailant as they went to stand back up and retaliate when he wasn't looking. While they were distracted by the two, a small figure stood in the doorway with an amused look on her face as she watched, clapping as if it had been the greatest show ever.

"Bravo!" she cheered.

Oliver had a dart still on his sleeve with sedatives in them and threw it at the person before getting up from the unconscious person underneath him. He was surprised he had missed, or had that little imp simply dodged it?

"Missed me you overgrown ape," Alice sang as she left the room.

Bella had stared at her in shock before her anger set in. "Do you have any more on you?" she asked, as she helped push the body off to the side. Checking to make sure the guy was still alive, she left him on the floor and went to look for the dart that had missed the midget witch.

"Yeah, the last one, want it?" Oliver asked, knowing how much she wanted to hurt _any_ Cullen but Rosalie.

"Yes," was all she said as she located it in the wall and yanked it out roughly. Tucking it in her uniform, she had her bo-staff out and ready as she went to the door. "You coming?"

"Yep," he said with a nod as he jogged after her. "Just a reminder, we want her alive so we can get information out of her."

Bella didn't look at him as she wasn't sure she could promise that. A low growl came out from her at his words expressing her displeasure with the request, knowing it was more an order. "I'll let her live," she sneered. "For now."

"Good," Oliver knew that this was going to be hard for her, but information was more important than her revenge - for now. "I'll follow your lead on this one." Oliver followed Bella through the building as she was chasing Alice, trying to make sure that she wouldn't do anything stupid in her anger. He heard some noise coming from upstairs, knowing that Steve and his team were taking care of the rest of the people Alice was with.

Even though he didn't want to deny Bella her revenge, there were plenty of opportunities for him to throw another dart at Alice as they were chasing her and he was going to if Bella didn't make the move on her own. "Calm down, focus," Oliver said calmly as they kept running after Alice. Where was she going?

Bella huffed as they ran into another office, only to find it empty. "The little bitch is playing games with us. I swear I will pull her hair from her body strand by strand then burn her clothes while she's still wearing them," she threatened as she paced the room, trying to look for how the girl had escaped, knowing that Bella had witnessed her enter ahead of them. "She has to be here!"

Oliver looked around and thought he heard something from above them. "She might be between floors," he said as he pointed at the removable ceiling tiles. Alice was small enough to pull it off.

She moved under the area where he was pointing as she stared silently, waiting for her to make some sort of sound to give her position away. Sure enough, after a few moments, there was a small scuffle on a nearby ceiling tile that also jostled. Grinning, she looked over at Oliver as she pulled him back. "Steve - be advised. There's rats in the walls."

"_10-4. On it," _he replied.

It took a couple minutes but an unmistakable odor of something foul could be picked up and Alice, in her attempt to get away from it, tumbled through an unstable ceiling tile that broke under her weight. When she looked up after gathering her bearings, she found that she had the two hooded vigilantes standing over her with one of them having their gun trained on her. "Oh, well this isn't fun anymore…"

Oliver carefully looked at Bella, who seemed to keep her anger under control - for now, and then looked back at Alice. "I know who you are, now tell me why you're here."

"Like I'd tell you! Although you're kinda hot in that...wanna have some fun?" she grinned maliciously. "I know someone we can go to and thoroughly annoy together. She wouldn't even know what hit her."

Oliver thought for a moment and smirked as he crossed his hands over his chest. "Depends. Who is this person?" If Alice was being playful, so could he.

Alice smirked back as she sat up. "Lose the bitch with you and maybe we can talk."

"Oh but she and I are a two for one deal, you have _no idea_ how talented she is," Oliver replied as he kept his eyes on Alice. "So, talk. Why are you here?"

Pouting, she eyed the female figure apprehensively. "I'm sure she is but I don't quite swing that way. Anyway, why should I talk to you now? You're going to end up hauling my ass to prison anyway whether I talk or not. I've seen it and I know you're lying about wanting to play with me. I just don't understand this one. I can't see her...Odd thing really."

Oliver listened carefully and then looked at Bella. "New thing?" He muttered as he pointed at Alice.

Bella shrugged, not speaking as she never adopted a voice modifier. She waved her finger around at her head, indicating she only believed that the girl may have gone a bit crazy in the time that she had stopped speaking.

Oliver shrugged as he moved a little bit. "What do you mean, Alice?"

The girl rolled her eyes as she tried to move to stand up but Bella pushed her back down into a seated position each time. "Bitch," she muttered. "I can see the future. Only started in the last year or so. Why do you want to know?" she questioned, focusing on him as she attempted to get a read on his intent but the female with him had moved over and did something as she touched him, blocking any further reading. "What are you doing?!"

"Nothing," Oliver said with a shrug. "I think you're very special, Alice," he said with a smile in his voice. "Maybe we will be able to work together because you're too special to take to prison now. You know that, right?"

"I'm not stupid. Just because she's somehow able to shield you from me, doesn't mean that I can't see past you lying. If you think that this little stunt today is the start, then you have no idea of what's coming because I'm only the tip of the iceberg. The rest of my family is coming and trust me, what my brother can do, you cannot fight," she said with an evil grin. "So you may as well take me away. My father will have me out in a few hours but just know that it won't be the end."

Bella had struggled to remain impassive as she looked up at the Arrow, keeping her back to Alice after handing Oliver her gun as she couldn't allow Alice to see the concern on her face.

Oliver looked at Bella. "What do you want me to do? I mean, I don't want her falling into the wrong hands, you know what _they_ would do if she really can tell the future…" he asked softly. "Handing her over to Lance will get her released back to her family and she'll be a danger to us if what she tells us is the truth."

"She can't seem to see me," she pointed out,whispering so that Alice couldn't hear their discussion. "Call them. We'll just have to be careful because she can see you it seems so we can assume she knows your day job."

"Again, if we hand her over to _them_, she's going to pose a threat anyway."

"Are you giving me permission to _kill _the bitch? I'll gladly do it," Bella said, a grin on her face.

"Have you taken a life before?" Oliver raised his eyebrow. "Someone who used to be close?"

She nodded slowly. "Not like this, no. If you think I won't be able to handle it…"

"I know you really want to and you'll be able to, but killing someone like this… I don't want you to deal with the fall out."

"_Um, I could use an extra pair of hands down here if one of you could make a decision…" _Steve piped up, offering a bone. "_Some of these perps are getting a bit irritating."_

Rolling her eyes, Bella nodded. "Fine. I"ll go help. Just - make sure she knows what the hell she was dealing with up here," she said to Oliver as she let go of him and headed for the door. "Uncle Gordon is really going to hate you for this one, you know."

Now knowing that Alice could read him, Oliver tried to keep a blank mind as possible as he looked at Alice. "No, not really. Self defense." Oliver said as he watched Bella walk out. He then looked back at Alice. "What happened to Rosalie?"

"What do you want with that bitch? She's nothing but a traitor to the family," Alice scoffed, resigned to her fate as she leaned back against the desk with her eyes closed.

"Tell me what happened to Rosalie," Oliver repeated. "Because I could do this the quick and easy way or the long and painful way."

She opened her eyes to look at him, searching his decisions before grimacing. "She's alive, not that it matters. My father and brother have her somewhere. Why do you care so much about her? What's she to you if you have that one? Stepping out? She seems to be the type that would feed you your own dick if she caught you with someone else. Especially someone like my dear sister."

"Where is she?"

"How the fuck should I know? I just follow orders! You know for someone hot, you sure are an asshole!"

"I know," Oliver said as he took his last explosive dart, seeing as he didn't have any arrows left. Alice Cullen deserved to be splattered all over this office. He knew that he had made a vow that he wouldn't kill anymore, but she deserved it. Her whole family deserved it for hurting Bella. Yes, this was revenge, not justice.

And he owed Bella to get that revenge. He had to kill Alice Cullen because she would pose a threat in the future to him and his, A.R.G.U.S. would most likely put her on the Suicide Squad and make them even more unstoppable. So this was a justifiable kill. She wasn't an innocent and she was dangerous.

But it still made him feel sick to his stomach, fed up with himself, with his life. This was one of the reasons why he had vowed not to kill anymore; Tommy's death had been the catalyst, but ever since that vow, he had felt as if he was a better person.

He backed away from her and looked at her from the door opening. He could have used the gun, make it a clean kill, but she didn't really deserve that.

She stared as he stepped away, suddenly seeing the change in her future, or lack there of. "What?! No, please! Don't do this! I'll tell you everything! I swear! Please! I'm not the last one coming!"

"And you won't be the last one to die," Oliver spat at her.

"Edward won't give up until he finds the girl! You won't be able to stop him!" she called back, running to the door as she attempted to push it open more to squeeze through.

Oliver pushed her back with his bow. "Bella says hi," he said as he threw the dart against Alice and made sure he was out of the blast radius before it exploded. When it did, the whole floor shook and he took a deep breath. It was easier for him to kill someone, he'd done it before, he would do it over and over again if that meant protecting his friends and family. It didn't mean that he was unaffected by it. After some of the smoke had evaporated, he got up from behind the desk he was hiding behind and walked back to the office, making sure that Alice was dead.

The explosive in his darts was usually potent enough to open a locked door or blow up a power station so he wasn't surprised that he found several scorched and bloody body parts all over the office. Blood was everywhere, on the floor, dripping from the walls, windows and ceiling. As expected, her head had come off of her torso, surprisingly it had ended up in the waste basket, there was blood all over the items left in it. If he hadn't been so sick with himself, he might have found the humor in that.

As he looked around, he could see Alice's bag nearby and lifted it up with his bow, careful not to walk into the bloody mess knowing that it would identify him as her killer. Not that Captain Lance wouldn't realize that it had been Oliver, all he had to do was identify the body and connect the dots. He went through Alice's bag and found her phone. He turned it off and pocketed it, maybe Felicity could do something with it.

Tossing the bag back into the office, he turned around and walked away to rejoin Bella. "She's gone," he muttered. "What do you need me to do?"

She eyed him carefully for a moment before nodding. "Okay," she said simply, knowing that this wasn't the place for such a discussion. "We knocked out the rest of her group with the sedative darts for the rifle because they were getting a bit out of control. Let's let Steve handle the rest of this for when Gordon shows up. Just give him the heads up for whatever was used with her so that he can bullshit something. Chuck and I will meet you by the bikes?"

Oliver nodded as he looked at Steve. "A dart with a small amount of C4. Left her bag with her for ID."

Steve nodded in return.

Oliver then followed Bella out and took a deep breath when they were outside. "Rosalie is still alive," he said to her as he rolled his shoulders to try and relax. "She's being held somewhere."

"Figured as much. They can't let go of shit," Bella said as she headed straight for the alley where their bikes were stashed. "Did she say if anyone else was in town? Maybe we can get information on the possible location?"

"We already know that Carlisle is trying to sell his house, no doubt soon everyone will be in Starling City. Felicity is on it, don't worry." He picked up his helmet and nodded a greeting to Roy. "You did great, both of you."

The kid nodded his thanks as he handed off Bella's bag to her that contained her rifle kit. "So good news is that we're down another Cullen, right?"

"That's the way it looks. You do know that I'll be inspecting this when we get back, right?" she pointed out as she pulled it over her shoulders, trying to keep the smile from forming at the corner of her mouth.

"Of course," Roy grinned as he put his helmet on his head. "See you back at the club," he said as he started his bike and drove off.

"Ready?" Oliver asked Bella as he secured his helmet on his head and got on the bike.

"Is that rhetorical? Because I don't think we can truly answer that question and be honest," she teased as she closed the faceshield of her helmet and wrapped her arms around him. "Onwards pony!"

Oliver snorted as he started the bike and drove them back to Verdant.

"_Hey, while you guys are on the way, Diggle picked up some celebratory coffee for a job well done… I stole a bottle of Jack from the club to add a little something something to it." _Felicity's voice sounded.

"That's good, Felicity," Oliver responded as he turned a corner. Not that he was going to have some. He needed to do something to get rid of the sedated feeling in his system. The kill had been a good kill because Alice would pose a threat either way, he needed to get that thought in his head because he did feel a little bit guilty and that wasn't good enough. He shouldn't feel guilt.

Bella tightened her arms around him as she felt his detachment. "You know, I think I could use some quiet. Would you mind if we headed back to the house after we drop the bikes off and changed?"

He breathed a sigh of relief. "I think that's a good idea," he replied as he tightened the grip on the handles and sped up a little bit.

She would deal with their friends if they gave them a hard time but she was sure that after everything, it wouldn't come to it. They needed some time to decompress and come to terms with what they had learned. For months the team had been trying to learn what the Cullens were planning and in one day, they got more than they anticipated. Still something bothered her about it but she wouldn't let herself dwell tonight. Bella had a boyfriend to care for that had sacrificed a piece of his soul so that she didn't have to. For that, she would give him whatever he needed.


	4. Enjoy the Silence

**Authors Notes: See! We haven't forgotten about this story with _Boondoggle_ going on. Bet you guys didn't expect such an explosive end to Alice so quickly, huh? Yeah, it surprised us as well when Buggy went and blew her head off into the garbage can...That was even hinted over on our Facebook pages in a bitstrip...teehee...Before anyone else asks... YES, Bella does have a vigilante name now. It will be revealed in the coming chapters. *wink* Enjoy the next chapter!**

**~o.O.o~**

He had driven them home after they changed back into their regular clothes and handed Alice's phone to Felicity. Oliver could feel the adrenaline drain out of his body on the trip back and he was just glad that he had gotten them home safely. The morning's breakfast attempts were still in the kitchen and needed cleaning up, but he really couldn't care about that. Right now, he needed to be there for Bella, as she had just lost someone from her past, someone she had been somewhat close with.

He set his helmet on the floor and pulled her closer. "Are you okay?" He asked as he caressed her hair. They both hadn't bothered to take a shower when they got changed earlier at the club, but for some reason she didn't smell sweaty at all, he could still smell her shampoo on her hair and it smelled like home, like safety.

Taking a moment to assess herself, Bella was surprisingly calm. "Actually, I'm okay. I'd let go of them a long time ago. I'm worried about you," she said as she ran her fingers along his face. "You don't like having to take anyone's life, good or bad. You've been pretty out of it since then. Did something happen after I left you two?"

"I've been fine with taking other people's lives, it's what I've done for years before I made the decision that I needed to change," Oliver responded after a while. "She… I don't know, maybe it was her begging or her trying to get me to stop from what I was about to do to her that unnerved me - hearing her speak with so much conviction about her brother being unstoppable… I don't know…"

"It was obvious she was able to see whatever future you were making that she was attempting to save her ass. How is it that she was able to see such things? Could she be like me?" she asked as she went to pull a bottle of open wine from the fridge for them. "If she's like me, then could there be a chance that Edward or the others are as well?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about," Oliver said as he followed her into the kitchen. "I assume that they hadn't shown anything like this before, as Alice said that it only happened about a year or so ago. Maybe they were in Central City when the thing exploded, we'll have to get Felicity to check that out."

Bella shrugged as she went to get out the wine glasses from the dish drain as she considered it. "Certainly plausible but that would mean they would have the gene. What are the odds though? I mean all of the Cullen kids were adopted."

"I don't know, I'm not an expert. Meta humans are Barry's thing," he said resigned as he sat down on one of the stools. "Maybe daddy Cullen is a collector. I mean, he's a doctor. He'd probably have known about genes and stuff and would probably have his adoptive kids tested… I don't know."

The thought sent a chill through her as she turned to look at him. "He's been trying to get me back together with Edward for years Oliver," she said coldly. "He has to know that I carry the gene too. Maybe not that it's active, but that it's there if he's so obsessed with it. He was my doctor throughout high school until Edward broke up with me."

"I was kidding… but it makes sense…" He said as he poured them wine. "Oh, if that is the case, that guy is so creepy!"

"Just wait until you have to meet him in person," she muttered. "On the outside, he could give you a run for your money when it comes to public image for citizen of the year. They gave us the first warning themselves with Esme coming here for one of her charity events but who knows when that will be. If Alice has been causing this much trouble all this time, I suspect the rest should be close by or coming around soon."

"Well, we already got rid of Jasper… so that's… what? Four left if you don't include Rosalie?" He took a sip of his wine.

"Ugh, Carlisle, Esme, Edward, and Emmett. Emmett though, if he's involved, was always yes man to Carlisle. We'll deal with him when it comes to it. I have to say I'm a bit worried for him too now."

"Alice said that she wasn't the only one coming and that there were more to come. I replied that she wasn't the only one to die, either." Oliver said grim as he took another sip of his wine. "And I mean it. That family needs to stop terrorizing you and they're a danger to Starling City."

"Edward and Carlisle are the dangers. We'll deal with them like we deal with everyone else that tries to fuck with us," Bella said as she looked up at him. "We have other things to worry about in the meanwhile. Like our charity party at Verdant next weekend?"

Oliver nodded. "I don't want it to be boring. I mean, my parents used to go to and host those events and they were just people drinking and chatting… that's boring."

"I say we auction you and Chuck off at the bar Coyote Ugly style," she grinned.

"Oh, that's a good idea," Oliver laughed. "He's going to hate us… and Steve! Steve can go up for auction!"

"Yes. Harley doesn't want to admit it but she likes him. Okay, so that's settled," she said as she inputted the notes for the idea into her phone. "I'll have to get the necessary permits Monday so that we have it in time. For the record, I'm telling him it was your idea."

"Of course you are," he mused as he drained his glass of wine and refilled it. "Maybe we can ask Captain Lance to join in on the auction as well, he's a catch."

Bella snorted. "Right. Let's get my father as well while we're at it. Do you really expect either of them to hang out at Verdant for any period of time voluntarily?"

"It's for charity. Laurel will bully her father into doing it."

"They'll sooner write a check and I'll write it for them before I'm willing to see them strip on my bar for charity."

"Fine, we'll keep them out of it," Oliver snickered. "And we need good food. Nothing stuffy but good food, I'm sure the cook at the club can come up with something but maybe it's better to get a catering business for that."

Rolling her eyes, she waved her hand at him. "Already taken care of. That's been handled since the date had been set. I actually got Alfredo's to do it at cost for us as long as we make a few public _dates_ at the restaurant over the next couple months."

Oliver winced at the mention of Alfredo's and the word date. It didn't start off so smoothly last time. "Sure, but let's bring our friends then too."

Bella raised her eyebrow at him. "It wasn't _that_ bad…"

"No, no it wasn't that bad…" he smiled at her. "We were just a little bit rusty, that's all."

"I think we're a bit better now. I mean, it's been what? Six, seven months? How much worse could it be?" she teased. "I mean, I could have traded you in a while ago if that date was anything to go by, right?"

"I like your optimism," Oliver said as he got up from his stool and walked to her to put his arms around her. "You can always trade me in, if you want, but I'd just kill the competition."

"I don't think I would. I like you right here," Bella grinned as she pulled him closer so that she could kiss him. "And I would kill any competition as well."

"Good, that's sorted then," he said as he returned the kiss. "Killing the competition," he moved his hand underneath her shirt and caressed her stomach. "How about no trading at all?" Oliver started to kiss her neck.

Bella let out a breath as she wrapped her arms around him. "No trading sounds good. I wasn't planning on letting you go anyway. If you hadn't gotten the memo by now, I don't give up easily," she said as she brushed her lips over his ears.

"Good, me neither," he said huskily and moved his hand up her shirt as he continued to nuzzle her neck. When his hand reached her breast, he gently squeezed in it. "Do you think we can resume what we started this morning? I could really do with a continuance right now…"

Grinning, she turned her head to glance at the leftover remains of their breakfast that remained. For all the interruptions and the stress, they both needed the outlet. "Race you upstairs?" she said as she pulled back so that she could pull her sweater off and threw it over her head as she slipped by him as she took a different stairwell up to her bedroom to lose him.

Laughing, Oliver darted after her and caught up with her just as she was running over the threshold to her room. He grabbed her around the waist and launched the both of them onto the bed, landing softly.

Pulling his shirt over his head, she eagerly claimed his mouth as she was more than ready to resume their morning plans that had been interrupted plenty. Only this time she wouldn't take any other interruptions lightly as she held him close.

~o.O.o~

_Elsewhere in Central City…_

After his shift at the police department, Barry Allen made his usual trip over to S.T.A.R. Labs for his usual physical tests. Slowing up his run as he approached, he found an unfamiliar car parked outside the entrance that they used, raising his curiosity as he walked in, his attention more alert as he looked around for unfamiliar faces.

"Hey Cisco? Is there something going on?" he asked as his friend, who was seated at one of the monitoring stations, read the results coming out on someone that was going through the same tests that he went through frequently.

"New meta that happened to have been in Central City at the time of the explosion. His father heard about Wells and brought him in to see if he could help with control or whatever. I didn't hear the whole conversation. Dude's ability is awesome though," he said as he pulled his lolly pop out of his mouth and pressed on a few of the controls.

"Professor Wells must be really excited to have found another meta he can work with," Barry said as he opened a drawer with one of Cisco's high glucose bars and started to eat it. "What can he do?" He couldn't help but feel slightly jealous, Barry was the one who was awesome. He had the awesome speed and he juggled two jobs at once.

"Control actions with his thoughts. Imagine the possibilities that could do," he grinned at him. "His father is some big name doc from Seattle. Supposedly, the sister is a meta as well and they are trying to get her in but she's off getting the family's new home situated in Starling City so she couldn't come for these tests. Wells is in his glory."

"That is very cool…" Barry said thoughtfully. Why did Seattle sound so familiar? "But dangerous if he's the wrong type of person and can you imagine him taking control of everyone? Including me?"

Cisco froze for a moment as he considered the implications his friend made. "Well that sucks," he muttered as he eyed the man on the treadmill inside the pen. "Cullen seems to be an okay guy but I get what you mean. That dude doesn't seem to talk much though without Dad's say so first."

Barry blinked. "Cullen?" He stammered as he started to pack a few of the glucose bars. He now knew why Seattle sounded so familiar.

"Yeah? You know him?"

"No, but I have to go… I'll probably be out of town for the rest of the week as I have a charity function to go to as well… I promised Felicity," he said with a smile on his face. "But be careful around those people, okay?"

Cisco nodded as he pulled his lolly pop out of his mouth again. "Sure thing. I'll let the doc know. Have fun and don't drink too much if you're going to be running around like you do," he grinned as he leaned back on his chair.

"Yeah yeah," Barry said before he sped off, not bothering to start running once he was outside the building. He had a long journey ahead and he was sure that he was going to get his ass kicked for this by his friends. But this was simply something he couldn't relay over the phone or the internet in case people were watching or listening in. This was information that Felicity had been looking for the entire time and this was important.

By the time he arrived in Starling City, the club was deserted and he took a small break to fuel up and catch his breath. He didn't really know where Oliver Queen's new apartment was, but he knew where the mansion was. Seeing as Oliver's girlfriend lived there, chances were that he was there as well. Oh, he was going to need a nap after this. "Come on Barry, another twenty miles to go and then you're golden," he said to himself before speeding off again, kind of wishing that he had brought his suit as he already had to discard his jacket - again - on his trip to Starling City.

Once at the mansion, he started to knock on the front door in rapid succession. This was urgent, he was allowed to make some noise.

Inside the house, Bella and Oliver were just rounding third base during what had become their movie night when the incessant pounding on the front door. Her head fell back against the couch with a groan. "Whoever that is, I am going to kill them," she groaned as she threw her hands over her face.

"Sounds urgent," Oliver sighed as he got to his feet and fastened his pants before walking towards the door. It had become a habit of people interrupting them just when they were about to get lucky with each other. When he opened the door he was surprised to find Barry standing there. "Barry," he greeted politely.

"I know what time it is and I am sorry to wake you, but this couldn't be said over the phone or email and I figured you wanted to know immediately."

Oliver raised an eyebrow before he stepped aside to let him in. "Bella we have a guest," he called to the living room.

Having just finishing pulling her shirt and pants back on, she glared in the direction of the door. "And just who has a death wish this time?" she asked as she worked to compose herself, swallowing the last of whatever wine was still in her glass before he and their unexpected visitor entered the room.

"Give it your best shot," Barry grinned. "You won't be able to catch me."

Bella glared at the boy as she sat back on the couch. "To what do we owe this unexpected visit? You know we would have just seen you at the club with Felicity. Why the special trip out here Sonic?"

"I know I'm a couple of days early but this just couldn't wait, nor be told over the phone," Barry said as he sat down on a chair. "Doctor Wells is taking care of an awesome new meta. Well, Cisco called him awesome. Apparently he can control actions with his thoughts, like… really invade your mind and make you do things you don't want to do."

"Sounds like a danger to me, why is Wells working with him?" Oliver asked as he sat down next to Bella.

"I don't know, to be honest, I didn't really wanted to stick around. According to Cisco the guy was a nice bloke although he didn't speak so much and was only doing what he was told by his father, who was a doctor in Seattle!" Barry said enthusiastically, wondering if Oliver and Bella caught on yet, he didn't until he heard the name belonging to that family. "There were two Cullens in my work space and they're definitely coming to Starling City as Cisco mentioned them talking about a sister who was sorting out the house with their mother."

Bella's face visibly paled at the information, sitting back as she closed her eyes. "This is so not happening. This seriously _cannot_ be happening," she said as she ran her hands through her hair as she worked to compose herself. Taking a deep breath, she nodded after a moment. "Well we don't have to worry about Alice. They think she's okay?" she asked as she looked back at him.

"Maybe Detective Lance's people are holding off on informing her family, or maybe the investigation isn't done yet." Oliver said with a shrug.

"Why? What happened?" Barry asked curious.

"Ah, the other day we had to help out the police department with a raid gone bad. Alice Cullen was there and she… well. She could see what people were going to do, but Bella seemed to be immune."

He looked at her impressed for a moment before it grew to concerned curiosity. "I wonder if you would be able to resist this new guy as well... Anyway it looked like his dad was trying to see if Wells could get him to control his ability better."

"They are up to something," she muttered unhappily. "I'm about ready to take one of my rifles and just pick them off."

"Could you ask Cisco to send us the file on Cullen?" Oliver asked Barry. "I know that it's probably not possible, and if it's not, we'll just ask Felicity to retrieve it…"

"Yeah, Cisco won't be too happy if that happens," Barry grinned. "I'll ask him first thing in the morning. I'll be in town until at least the day after the charity event so if you need any help taking down bad guys, I'm your man."

Bella eyed Oliver as she let out a breath. Their evening plans were ruined again but at least they had a heads up on their opponent. "You think we can convince Uncle Q to keep Alice's death hushed? We have her phone. Let's let them continue to think she's alive with text messages, that she's following us or something? Like they have been trying to do with Rosalie. I mean we have an advantage here."

"Why would we have them think she's still alive? It'll only delay the inevitable."

"We play them, work them to get information while we can," she explained.

Oliver sighed. "I know that you mean well, but I took that phone so Felicity could crack it and maybe find information on it. That doesn't mean we have to use that phone for the same reasons as they do, what does it make us if we stoop to their level?"

She eyed him, unhappy about losing a good opportunity for intelligence. Heaving a deep breath, she said nothing as she sat back on the couch and looked away. Bella wanted to find her friend as well. Not knowing what Rosalie's condition was bothered her but she continued the act that everything was okay. "So Esme is already in town. Great. Let's hunt the bitch down."

"No," Oliver said as he looked at her. She looked as if she was about to explode when he said that, but he didn't care. He knew she wanted to take revenge. "The only bad thing that she's responsible for is having adopted children who are off the rails. There's no proof that she has anything to do with it. As much as I'd like to make sure that you won't ever be bothered by them again, all we can do is sit and wait, and keep an eye on them as well as we can because if one of them does slip up, we'll go after them."

Bella heaved a deep breath as she slowly stood from the couch. Looking over at Barry, she gave him a tired smile. "You're welcome to stay the night. I doubt Felicity would welcome her sleep being interrupted in the middle of the night if it isn't for catching a bad guy. Plenty of rooms upstairs," she said, inviting him. "Just don't take mine. I sincerely doubt Oliver here would like sharing my bed with you."

"Thank you," Barry smiled at her, feeling sorry for Bella. Of course, Oliver had been right, but Barry knew what it was like to be able to do something and not being able to do something - albeit it for being completely different reasons. Barry knew that he could break his father out of prison in a blink of an eye, he was fast enough, it was possible, however, he couldn't break his father out of prison because what life would his father have then? He'd be a fugitive.

"No problem. I'm just going to call my cousin and see if she might be in the mood to hit up a bar or two," she smirked as she walked out of the room. Maybe some drunken idiot would start a bar fight that the two girls could get in on to release some issues.

"By the time you'll be in the city and have met up with Laurel, the bars will be closed," Oliver pointed out.

"I could run into the city to go and buy some booze?" Barry suggested with a shrug. "Then you can call whomever you want at this time and have them make their way over here."

Letting out a groan, Bella let her head fall back to her shoulders. "I wasn't suggesting Laurel, but there is always a dive open late somewhere. I need to do _something_ besides sit around and _wait_!" she complained as she paced the floor in her agitation over the situation.

"How about sleep?" Oliver mused. They had come home at nine p.m. and Barry had knocked on the door around midnight, interrupting him and Bella having some fun. "Or we could do some sparring, if you'd like. Barry will be the referee."

"Actually… I could do with learning some moves to keep myself alive…"

Bella wasn't in the mood for the boy's nearly constant good mood, shaking her head as she walked out. "Oliver can do something with you. I'm going to change and go for a run around the property. Remind me to call someone tomorrow to have a home gym installed."

"Someone might think she's pregnant because her mood swings are giving me whiplash," Barry commented as he pointed towards where she disappeared. Turning towards Oliver, he heaved a deep breath. "You know, I can probably take some time off from work to hang around awhile and help. I have some vacation saved up that I haven't taken yet."

Oliver stared at Barry for a moment, wondering if he should hit the boy or not. "Didn't you already say you're around for the rest of the week? Can you even do that with your other responsibilities?"

"Ah, you know, if they need me, they'll call me and I'll be there in a few hours," Barry said with a shrug.

Oliver slowly nodded. "Go to bed, Barry, I doubt that you'll get a lot of sleep once Felicity gets her hands on you."

"Yeah," he replied as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck uncomfortably. "That might be a good idea. I'll see you in the morning. Good luck with Bella. 'Night, man."

"Good night," Oliver said as he watched Barry leave the room. He got to his feet and started to clean up a little as he waited for Bella to come back down so he could accompany her on her run.

When Bella made her way back downstairs, she walked past the living room for the kitchen to grab a couple bottles of water to take with her as she intended to ignore any attempt that she believed her boyfriend might make to keep her from leaving the house. She adjusted the bottles in her running bag to make sure that they didn't make the handgun she had tucked inside noticeable should she run into any trouble outside. The past year had increased some of her paranoia, but eased much of it as well. It did nothing for her anger management issues.

Oliver had observed her from his spot in the kitchen and was torn between asking her if he could accompany her on her run, in the dark, around the woods, or staying inside and shutting the fuck up. She had managed fine on her own without him before she moved back to Starling City, why would anything have changed? He knew that he needed to give her her space but on the other hand, he was worried that something might happen to her, even if being on private property. Then again, she was bullet proof. "You need a running buddy?"

She paused for a moment before looking up at him. Contemplating the angle he might be going with his question, she could only find concern in his eyes. "I don't _need_ one, but I wouldn't mind if you're offering," she answered quietly before looking back down to close the bag up.

Oliver put on his running shoes, there was no need to change clothes anyway as he was already in a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. He took a bottle of water from the fridge and stuffed it in his pocket. "Alright, let's go then," he smiled at her.

Her eyebrow raised curiously as he hadn't tried to object to the abrupt change in evening plans, despite the news they received. "Okay," she nodded as she headed for the door, glancing back at him frequently while she tried to figure out why he was being so indulgent. "I was thinking of running a perimeter of the property line then maybe a figure eight depending on how I'm feeling after that."

"Lead the way," he said as he opened the door for her.

Bella walked outside where she moved over to the edge of the garden area where she could stretch her legs and back before they began their run. She remained quiet as she warmed up as she thought about the Cullens and how they could possibly fight against an ability like Barry said that they claimed Edward to carry. It was a frightening thought that they might be capable of forcing her, or anyone, to do anything against their wills and wondered if that was how they were keeping Rosalie from being able to make contact.

Her friend's job had told Captain Lance when he called for her as a favor that she had given her notice, but she also knew that would never have happened as the girl loved her career. After a few minutes, she looked over at Oliver. "I'm ready," she announced.

He motioned for her to start running and it was easy to keep up with her pace. In fact, it was a quite pleasurable jog. He didn't have to be a mind reader to know what was going on inside her head; all sorts of emotions and thoughts were colliding with each other and to be honest, he was a little freaked out himself. Sure, Oliver had dealt with people who seemed to have enhanced abilities, but they were under the influence of things, like the mirakuru. He's had tough adversaries and had been in difficult situations, but how were they going to be able to fight someone like Edward? Meta-humans were Barry's thing and even he seemed to be freaked out by it - the sheer notion of Edward being able to control other people was chilling his blood.

After a long moment of silence between the two of them as they ran over the grounds, Oliver spoke up. "I'm scared too, you know. I have no idea how we're going to handle this… we might have to get some help."

She had taken a moment after he spoke to focus her breathing with controlled breaths in and out before she could look over at him as she continued her pace. "Help?" she questioned skeptically, wondering what he had in mind.

He opened his mouth to reply and then realized that his answer would have been the stupidest idea ever. "Yeah, you're right, not a good idea…" he replied before another thought entered his head. "But maybe we can ask the League for help instead of A.R.G.U.S."

"We'd have to tell them about me. Why Cullen is so intent on trying to get me - a reason why they might be interested in having me themselves," she pointed out in pants as she jumped over a log along the hiking path.

"Yeah, maybe not a good idea either," Oliver sighed. "Well, at least we can ask Barry for Edward's file… and then see what we're going to do."

Shrugging Bella ran a few more paces. "It's worth considering. They have manpower and abilities too, right?"

"No, just damn good training… like Sara," Oliver replied as he followed her. "I told you the story about Nyssa finding Sara after the shipwreck, didn't I?"

"Yeah," she grunted, not particularly fond of the time period in general still even though she was really over a lot of her issues with her cousin. "At this point, since we don't know what exactly we're dealing with in regards to Edward, let's just keep them in mind. If I have to skip town, I will, if they are to be called."

"Yeah, we'll see," Oliver agreed. "We definitely need to find out more about what they are up to. Maybe I can have Felicity track them down in their new digs and put some trackers on their cars or something."

She grumbled a few curses under her breath. "Look for any large properties that might need some work but are in a upper class area. Esme loves her renovation projects so if she came ahead of everyone else, she would have been focused on that as Carlisle wouldn't be caught dead living in an unfinished house."

"I will relay the message," he said after a while and then grinned. "You and I should go out again. Like… the movies."

The sudden suggestion caused a distraction for Bella, making her trip over something in the pathway before she found her footing again. While they had found some sort of balance over the months since their first _date_, they hadn't attempted to really do anything similar again. She much preferred to stay in together for the privacy. "We watch plenty of movies at the house or your apartment," she replied, stopping to pull out her water bottle. Eyeing him nervously, she fiddled with the cap as she thought about it. "You feeling okay there Oliver? Another date night? I'm not objecting, but it's also not really necessary..."

"A change of scenery," Oliver said with a nod. "Not a date, just us going to the movies somewhere that's not your house or my apartment as we've been spending too much time there anyway. We need to get out of our heads a bit."

She nodded as she drank from her water bottle as she thought about it before offering the rest of the bottle to him. "Sounds good. You want to go after the charity party this weekend?"

He took one sip of the bottle before handing it back to her. "Yeah, why not? There must be a good movie playing, right?"

"You've seen the On Demand options for recent releases. I'm sure we can find something we could tolerate. If not then we'll just find something else to do," she shrugged as she tucked the bottle away before pulling the bag back on. "We could always try and see if we can survive dinner again without freaking out."

Oliver laughed. "I said we could go to a movie. I didn't say anything about dinner."

"You are the one that wanted another date night. I thought dinner tends to go hand in hand with the movie thing," Bella pointed out with a grin as she turned to ease into a jog again from their water break. "But that's fine. No dinner. Does that mean I should meet you at the theater as well?"

"We could have dinner at my place?" Oliver suggested as he followed her. "Get some take away?"

She let out a laugh. "Dinner at your place. Just so you know, this party is semi formal. You'll have to wear a suit still. After all, we'll have a lot of police brass there. Thank you Daddy and Uncle Quentin."

"I know it's semi-formal and…" Oliver looked at her and then sighed. "Fine, we'll go to Alfredo's."

"Alfredo's is catering the event so don't worry about Friday," she chuckled as she looked back over her shoulder. "I was only teasing about going out to dinner you know."

"I just wanted us to do something that's not in our houses and not out in public so we can actually fuck up and not feel bad about it."

Slowing to a stop again, Bella turned to move to walk up to Oliver and wrap her arms around his neck. "I don't care what anyone else thinks. So what if we fuck up. It's our fuck up and it's how we do it. We're both trying to figure this shit out together and that's what matters I think. Hell. Look at how far we've gotten so far. I think we've done pretty good on our own that we can give the normal couple stuff a try. Maybe after we deal with Daddy Cullen and my stalker ex-boyfriend, you and I just take off for a vacation together where no one knows us? Maybe someplace warm. Like Tahiti?"

"Oh, that sounds like an idea," Oliver said with a nod and put his arms around her. "And we've done extremely well, I think," he softly kissed her. "I'm surprised you haven't run for the hills yet."

"You haven't given me a good enough reason yet," she replied as she leaned into him more. They had been almost done with the perimeter run of the property but she was still fairly awake yet from the excitement and anxiety of their surprise visit. Even though it was a few hours yet from dawn, she knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep any time soon. "I don't want to go home yet."

"Then what did you have in mind we'd do?" Oliver softly asked as he caressed her back. "Maybe continue what we started before Barry dropped a bombshell?"

While the idea was most welcome, it wasn't so much as long as there was a houseguest. "After he leaves, definitely," she grinned as she pushed herself up to kiss him.

"We don't have to go back inside the house," he muttered against the kiss. "You have a big property, there are the empty stables… we're outside…"

"Is that so?" Bella murmured as her fingers scratched over his scalp. "You do know the stables are on the other side of the house…It's still a distance from us now."

"Well then," he said huskily as he started to kiss her neck. "I'd just have to devour you here."

She shuddered as he hit a sensitive spot before looking around to make sure they were truly alone within the woods. Her hands held onto his shoulders tightly as she leaned back to pull his shirt off before hastily tugging at her own. "Damn…shit..." she grunted as she got caught in forgetting to pull her bag off first in her rush.

Oliver laughed as he helped her to get the bag off of her and then helped her out of hers, before resuming his attentions to her neck and earlobe as his hands wandered off to her pants.

With their shirts thrown on the ground, her eyes rolled back as her nails dug into his flesh as she felt him slowly peel her running pants over her hips. "Stop teasing," she begged as her mouth pressed into his neck before moving his mouth. "Take me. Please…"

He helped her out of her pants and started opening his own before his phone started to ring. "No," he groaned as he continued to get rid of his pants and let the phone ring.

"Shit fuckers. Ignore it," Bella snapped as she kicked his pants away. "I'm don't care who that was and if it was someone from _work,_ you're a dead man Oliver Queen," she warned as she pulled him back to her as she nipped at his jaw.

"_Work_ doesn't call late at night, Bella," he replied as he tore her underwear with a satisfied grin on his face.

She grunted as she pressed herself against him. "If I was into my hot boss and wanted to try to convince him for a booty call, _work_ is a perfect excuse to call at 2:00am."

"Ah, but the hot boss changed his ways," Oliver grinned as he stepped out of his boxers and pulled her down with him as he sat on the floor. "Would you like to ride me, Ms. Swan?" He asked as he looked at her. "Or shall I take you here on the ground?"

"Shut up," Bella laughed as she shoved his shoulders and climbed on his lap, positioning herself over him. As she settled down, she let out a loud moan as he filled her, taking the moment to enjoy the feeling after so many times of being stopped before they could even get to this part. Kissing him as she begun to move slowly, she heard his phone ringing again and growled. "Someone has a death wish…"

"Let me check… if it's no one special I'll turn it off," Oliver groaned as he really, really enjoyed being inside of her. He grabbed the bottom of his pants and dragged it towards them before fingering his phone out of his pocket. "It's Diggle," Oliver said as the phone stopped ringing.

"No one will miss the butler," she said through pursed lips, clearly plotting some devious murder scheme. Rolling her hips on him, she let out a sigh. "I'll have Steve fly the body out to the middle of the ocean somewhere…"

"Great idea," Oliver said as he put his phone back down and started to caress her breasts, only for his phone to start ringing again. Frustrated, Oliver picked up the phone. "What?"

"_A bunch of armed robbers are leaving Starling City, heading your way. Care to take care of that?"_

Oliver thought for a moment and then cursed Diggle for calling him. Oliver had taken his suit and his weapons home because it had been closer than Verdant as he had been doing something entirely different in a remote part of town and Diggle knew this. "I'm tempted to say 'no'."

"_You don't sleep anyway."_

"Why are you up anyway?"

"_You can argue with me or hop on your motorcycle and wait for the armed robbers to come to you."_

"What the hell does he want?" Bella asked, not hearing the other half of the conversation.

"He wants me to stop some armed robbers who decided to escape the city and are coming our way." Oliver explained to Bella.

She groaned as she let her head fall in resignation. "How much did they get away with?"

"How much did they steal?" Oliver asked Diggle.

"_They robbed Starling National Bank, Oliver. They had about 20 million in their safe and some valuables from high end customers like yourself and Bella."_ Oliver had put Diggle on speaker phone. "_I'm here right now and your stuff is safe but others weren't as lucky."_

"Fine," Oliver muttered. "I'll call you when I'm on my way." He ended the call and resisted the urge to throw his phone through the forest.

Bella had sat back on his lap and waited for him to calm down patiently. "Would you like to take Dean or Sam with you to shoot some kneecaps?"

"I think that arrows look prettier in knees than bullets, don't you think?" Oliver smirked as he took a deep breath. This. Sucked.

She looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding. "You're right. It's more my style anyway. I guess duty calls," she sighed as she moved to get off of him with a pout as she looked down where their bodies parted. "So close…"

"I know," he sighed as he quickly pulled on his boxers and pants, not bothering about his shirt as he was going to change when he was inside the house anyway. "Depending on how many there are, I'm going to make them regret robbing that bank."

"You want me to join you?" she asked as she dressed.

"I won't be long," Oliver said as he picked up her bag. "But I'm not leaving you out here by yourself so hurry up."

It didn't take her long before the two were on their way back to the house where he gave her a quick kiss before disappearing to change into his Arrow uniform and was out the door, leaving Bella alone. Frowning, she went to search for her cell phone where she sent their friend a text message, promising him his death for his phone call before she went to shower and find something to occupy herself until he returned.


End file.
